Kahenge fire, August 2025 Kahenge
The fire started on 30 August 2025 in Kahenge, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,655 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 12th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 17 in Namibia in 2025, of 87.
- Burnt area
- 8,655ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 30 Aug 2025 – 8 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- constituencies
- Started on
- 30 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 329
- in a single hotspot: 57 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.4GW
- 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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,270 ha in 2016, 2,859 ha in 2017, 310 ha in 2018, 935 ha in 2020, 4,411 ha in 2021, 678 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,625 ha that had burned before.
- 4,270 ha Kahenge fire, September 2016 9,649 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,515 ha Kahenge fire, September 2021 5,930 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,080 ha Kahenge fire, September 2017 3,298 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 678 ha Kahenge fire, August 2024 2,545 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 310 ha Kahenge fire, October 2018 3,968 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kahenge where it started8,688 ha reached on 30 Aug1.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug | 34.2 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 31 Aug | 33.4 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 1 Sept | 33.5 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 2 Sept | 33.5 °C | 9 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 3 Sept | 31.9 °C | 10 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 4 Sept | 32.2 °C | 10 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 5 Sept | 33.1 °C | 10 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 6 Sept | 33.2 °C | 11 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 7 Sept | 33.4 °C | 11 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 8 Sept | 33.6 °C | 10 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 10 Sept after | 34.9 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 11 Sept after | 34.2 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 12 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 13 Sept after | 35.2 °C | 9 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 14 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 15 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Sept after | 36.0 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 17 Sept after | 35.4 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 18 Sept after | 37.1 °C | 9 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 7 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 45 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 329Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kahenge fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2025 and 8 September 2025: 10 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 8,655 hectares (86.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kahenge (8,688 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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
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.