Impendle fire, August 2016 Impendle
The fire started on 29 August 2016 in Impendle, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,895 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 77th largest in KwaZulu-Natal since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 41 in South Africa in 2016, of 71.
- Burnt area
- 2,895ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 29 Aug 2016 – 1 Sept 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 85
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.0GW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.1 mm on 3 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Impendle where it started2,884 ha reached on 29 Aug1.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug | 22.9 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 30 Aug | 22.6 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 31 Aug | 22.6 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 1 Sept | 22.2 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Sept after | 20.8 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 3 Sept after | 21.5 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 8.1 mm | Very low 1 |
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 · 85Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,429 haImpendle23 July 2020 · 4 days · 4 km away
- 8,607 haImpendleSeptember 2019 · 4 days · 9 km away
- 9,087 haImpendle18 July 2020 · 4 days · 13 km away
- 8,310 haInkosi Langalibalele15 July 2020 · 4 days · 19 km away
- 5,535 haInkosi Langalibalele27 July 2021 · 2 days · 19 km away
- 5,940 haInkosi LangalibaleleJuly 2019 · 2 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Impendle fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 August 2016 and 1 September 2016: 4 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 2,895 hectares (29.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Impendle (2,884 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 22.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Africa (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.
Emergency number: 10177 · 112
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 geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 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.