Gobabis fire, September 2018 Gobabis, Kalahari
The fire started on 5 September 2018 in Gobabis, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,203 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 34th largest in Omaheke since 2016 (of 61 with a page). Number 37 in Namibia in 2018, of 83.
- Burnt area
- 3,203ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 5 Sept 2018 – 5 Sept 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- constituencies
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 104
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 70
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 984MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Gobabis where it started2,803 ha reached on 5 Sept0.5 %
-
410 ha reached on 5 Sept0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
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)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 32.5 °C | 10 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 6 Sept after | 24.3 °C | 12 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 7 Sept after | 22.7 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 8 Sept after | 17.3 °C | 10 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 9 Sept after | 21.2 °C | 8 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 10 Sept after | 27.1 °C | 5 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 4 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 12 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 6 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 13 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 5 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 14 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 4 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 15 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 4 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 104Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gobabis fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2018 and 5 September 2018: 1 day between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,203 hectares (32.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gobabis (2,803 ha, 0.5 %); Kalahari (410 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Namibia (OCHA COD-AB). It is not an official report.
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
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
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 OCHA COD-AB (Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-IGO)). 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.