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Kapako fire, 27 August 2017 Kapako

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2017, 12:52 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2017 in Kapako, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,582 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 36th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 29 in Namibia in 2017, of 123.

Burnt area
4,582ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
27 Aug 2017 – 7 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
27 Aug
2017
Heat detections
152
in a single hotspot: 124 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311234567

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
50km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

  1. Kapako where it started
    4,605 ha reached on 26 Aug
    0.7 %

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)
27 Aug 32.7 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Aug 32.0 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
29 Aug 31.4 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Aug 32.1 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Aug 32.2 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Sept 33.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Sept 32.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Sept 31.1 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Sept 29.5 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Sept 31.1 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Sept 32.6 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 33.6 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept after 33.8 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Sept after 33.7 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept after 34.3 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Sept after 33.6 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
12 Sept after 33.6 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Sept after 33.6 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Sept after 34.6 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Sept after 34.3 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
16 Sept after 35.6 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Sept after 35.6 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2017
After · 14 Sept 2017

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 · 152Every 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 Namibia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kapako fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2017 and 7 September 2017: 12 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 4,582 hectares (45.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kapako (4,605 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.

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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.