Burned area
satellite only2,733ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 21 Aug 2023 – 25 Aug 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
BW · Botswana · –
Ghanzi fire, 21 August 2023 Ghanzi
Out · last detection 24 Aug 2023, 23:46 UTC
The fire started on 21 August 2023 in Ghanzi, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,733 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 305th largest in Ghanzi since 2016 (of 416 with a page). Number 239 in Botswana in 2023, of 381.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only5days
21 Aug 2023 to 25 Aug 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 24 Aug 2023, 23:46 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only21 Aug 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 21 Aug 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only89
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 209 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 21 Aug 2023 – 25 Aug 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,705MW
Total radiative power on 24 August 2023; hotspots that day: 40.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 24 Aug 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model45.9FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 21 Aug 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model32.8°C · 9% RH
High of 32.8 °C and minimum humidity of 9% on 25 August 2023; gusts of 41 km/h on 25 August 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 21 Aug 2023 – 25 Aug 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logStart date: 22 August 2023 → 21 August 2023.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 27 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 2,733 ha
- Dates
- 21 Aug 2023 – 25 Aug 2023
- Name
- Ghanzi
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/ghanzi-2023-08-12?v=2026-10-27A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire ghanzi-2023-08-12.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-08-21 | 8 | 23 | 32.4 | 10.1 | 10 | 13.8 | 31.3 | 0 | 45.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-08-22 | 14 | 74 | 31.8 | 10.7 | 9 | 15 | 25.6 | 0 | 48.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-08-23 | 27 | 408 | 27.7 | 9.8 | 11 | 16.7 | 35.3 | 0 | 50.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-08-24 | 40 | 1,705 | 30 | 9.6 | 11 | 12.5 | 27 | 0 | 46.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-08-25 | 0 | 0 | 32.8 | 12 | 9 | 23.9 | 41 | 0 | 60.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-08-26 | 0 | 0 | 20.3 | 8.5 | 16 | 22.3 | 42.5 | 0 | 51.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-08-27 | 0 | 0 | 22.7 | 6.8 | 10 | 21 | 42.8 | 0 | 50.6 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-08-28 | 0 | 0 | 23.8 | 12.4 | 23 | 28.9 | 55.1 | 0 | 54.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-08-29 | 0 | 0 | 23.8 | 10.2 | 27 | 22.8 | 44.3 | 0 | 44 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-08-30 | 0 | 0 | 25.2 | 8.9 | 20 | 18.1 | 37.4 | 0 | 39.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-08-31 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 11.2 | 17 | 19.8 | 41 | 0 | 44.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-09-01 | 0 | 0 | 31.5 | 14.2 | 13 | 22.9 | 45 | 0 | 54.6 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-02 | 0 | 0 | 32.2 | 13.2 | 12 | 20.5 | 42.1 | 0 | 53.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-03 | 0 | 0 | 33.6 | 14.6 | 10 | 24.4 | 47.5 | 0 | 62.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-04 | 0 | 0 | 33.6 | 13.1 | 11 | 15.6 | 35.3 | 0 | 51.5 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 2,733ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 21 Aug 2023 – 25 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 89
- in a single hotspot: 209 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 552MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
21 Aug25 Aug
24 Aug 2023
How it evolved, day by day
21 Aug
22 Aug
23 Aug
24 Aug
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
33°high
41km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,293 ha in 2017, 626 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,293 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Ghanzi where it started2,761 ha reached on 21 Aug0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
Started with Very dry air: 63 % of the area in Botswana 60 days without rain: 71 % of the area in Botswana
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug | 32.4 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Aug | 31.8 °C | 9 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Aug | 27.7 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 24 Aug | 30.0 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Aug | 32.8 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 26 Aug after | 20.3 °C | 16 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Aug after | 22.7 °C | 10 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 28 Aug after | 23.8 °C | 23 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 29 Aug after | 23.8 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Aug after | 25.2 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Sept after | 31.5 °C | 13 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 2 Sept after | 32.2 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 3 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 10 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 4 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 45.9, a minimum humidity of 10% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 18.
FWI at the start
45.9
Minimum humidity
10 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Ghanzi fire, 21 August 2023
2,733 ha
5 days
FWI 45.9
Min. humidity 10 %
Hukunsti fire, August 2017
2,687 ha
3 days
FWI 46.2
Min. humidity 11 %
144 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Ghanzi fire, September 2022
3,677 ha
6 days
FWI 46.1
Min. humidity 9 %
32 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Hukunsti fire, August 2021
3,641 ha
3 days
FWI 49.2
Min. humidity 11 %
67 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 25 Aug.
Ghanzi fire, September 2023
5,025 ha
6 days
FWI 49.0
Min. humidity 11 %
115 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Hukunsti fire, August 2021
9,014 ha
4 days
FWI 48.2
Min. humidity 12 %
109 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 4 days
- median duration
- 3,638 ha
- median area
- 11 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 1.5 mm
- rain at the end (median; 2 of 18 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (2,733 ha against a median of 3,638 ha) and lasted 5 days, against 4 days.
In 16 of 18, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
41km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 25 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 2 of 18, with a median of 1.5 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 14 Aug 2023
After · 1 Sept 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 25 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak78 µg/m³
Days over the guideline7 days
PM10112 µg/m³
Optical depth1.39
WHO 15
20 Aug22 Aug24 Aug26 Aug28 Aug
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 89Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV
Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,241 haGhanzi27 October 2026 · 6 days · 11 km away
- 10,519 haGhanzi4 October 2021 · 7 days · 19 km away
- 15,555 haGhanzi16 August 2023 · 10 days · 27 km away
- 9,024 haGhanzi2 October 2021 · 5 days · 28 km away
- 68,506 haGhanzi11 September 2017 · 10 days · 31 km away
- 8,745 haGhanzi5 October 2017 · 9 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ghanzi fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 August 2023 to 25 August 2023 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2023 to 25 August 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,733 hectares (27.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ghanzi (2,761 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Botswana (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 18. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 3,638 ha; 11 % went past 10,000 ha. In 16 of 18, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.5 mm.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 22 August 2023 → 21 August 2023.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 August 2023 to 25 August 2023. 89 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.