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SZ · Eswatini · →

Hlane fire, August 2020 Hlane, Mkhiweni, Mhlume

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2020, 12:30 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2020 in Hlane, Eswatini, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,184 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Lubombo since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 6 in Eswatini in 2020, of 6.

Burnt area
1,184ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
13 Aug 2020 – 15 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
3
tinkhundla
Started on
13 Aug
2020
Heat detections
42
in a single hotspot: 93 MW
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug15 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

131415

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Hlane where it started
    725 ha reached on 13 Aug
    1.5 %
  2. Mkhiweni
    405 ha reached on 13 Aug
    1.0 %
  3. Mhlume
    59 ha reached on 13 Aug
    0.1 %

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.

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Aug 2020
After · 22 Aug 2020

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 · 42Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Eswatini ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Hlane fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 August 2020 and 15 August 2020: 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 1,184 hectares (11.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Hlane (725 ha, 1.5 %); Mkhiweni (405 ha, 1.0 %); Mhlume (59 ha, 0.1 %).
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Eswatini (geoBoundaries). 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.

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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 geoBoundaries ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.