How long did the Grootfontein fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2026 and 9 September 2026: 3 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 2,090 hectares (20.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Grootfontein (2,096 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 45 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 Namibia (OCHA COD-AB). It is not an official report.

NA · Namibia · 2026-09-07 → 2026-09-09

Grootfontein fire, September 2026 Grootfontein

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2026, 13:16 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2026 in Grootfontein, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,090 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 207th largest in Otjozondjupa since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 143 in Namibia in 2026, of 155.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 2,090ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 3days; 7 Sept 2026 – 9 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; constituencies
Started on: 7 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 54; in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start: 61; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 550MW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

8910

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high

45km/h · peak gust

5%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 898 ha in 2017.

898 ha Grootfontein fire, October 2017 16,323 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Grootfontein where it started

2,096 ha reached on 8 Sept

0.2 %

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)
7 Sept	34.4 °C	5 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
8 Sept	34.4 °C	18 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
9 Sept	30.0 °C	28 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
10 Sept after	30.7 °C	18 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
11 Sept after	32.0 °C	16 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
12 Sept after	33.2 °C	15 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
13 Sept after	34.2 °C	17 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
14 Sept after	33.4 °C	14 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
15 Sept after	34.0 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
16 Sept after	36.3 °C	9 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
17 Sept after	36.3 °C	13 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
18 Sept after	34.6 °C	16 %	62 km/h	0.5 mm	Very extreme 78
19 Sept after	27.1 °C	14 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
20 Sept after	29.2 °C	16 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 31 Aug 2026

After · 16 Sept 2026

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 8 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak28 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1030 µg/m³

Optical depth0.57

WHO 15

5678910111213

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 · 54Every 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

All fires in Namibia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Grootfontein fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2026 and 9 September 2026: 3 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 2,090 hectares (20.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Grootfontein (2,096 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 45 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 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned