Grootfontein fire, September 2020 Grootfontein
The fire started on 28 September 2020 in Grootfontein, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,343 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 4th largest in Otjozondjupa since 2016 (of 212 with a page). Number 4 in Namibia in 2020, of 146.
- Burnt area
- 20,343ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 28 Sept 2020 – 4 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- constituencies
- Started on
- 28 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 710
- in a single hotspot: 379 MW
- Danger at start
- 67
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 18.9GW
- 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
-
Grootfontein where it started20,419 ha reached on 28 Sept1.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Sept | 36.3 °C | 5 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 29 Sept | 35.4 °C | 6 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 30 Sept | 36.3 °C | 6 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 1 Oct | 36.0 °C | 5 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 2 Oct | 36.3 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 3 Oct | 36.5 °C | 5 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 4 Oct | 37.5 °C | 5 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 5 Oct after | 37.9 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 6 Oct after | 39.1 °C | 6 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 7 Oct after | 35.8 °C | 4 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 76 |
| 8 Oct after | 37.0 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 9 Oct after | 37.2 °C | 5 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 10 Oct after | 36.4 °C | 8 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 11 Oct after | 37.0 °C | 7 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 12 Oct after | 37.0 °C | 7 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 13 Oct after | 37.3 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 14 Oct after | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 15 Oct after | 37.0 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 16 Oct after | 36.7 °C | 9 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
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 · 710Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,545 haGrootfonteinNovember 2020 · 4 days · 11 km away
- 3,195 haGrootfonteinSeptember 2018 · 2 days · 18 km away
- 3,063 haGrootfontein10 October 2017 · 3 days · 24 km away
- 2,090 haGrootfonteinSeptember 2026 · 4 days · 24 km away
- 16,323 haGrootfontein14 October 2017 · 8 days · 25 km away
- 2,313 haGrootfonteinNovember 2021 · 5 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Grootfontein fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 September 2020 and 4 October 2020: 7 days 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 20,343 hectares (203.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Grootfontein (20,419 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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.