Kapako fire, 19 September 2017 Kapako, Rundu Rural West
The fire started on 19 September 2017 in Kapako, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,557 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 17th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 16 in Namibia in 2017, of 123.
- Burnt area
- 6,557ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 19 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- constituencies
- Started on
- 19 Sept
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 253
- in a single hotspot: 392 MW
- Danger at start
- 54
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.2GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 29 Sept.
This area had burned before
2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 138 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Kapako where it started6,532 ha reached on 19 Sept1.0 %
-
46 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Sept | 35.9 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 20 Sept | 35.4 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 21 Sept | 34.6 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 22 Sept | 34.6 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 23 Sept | 35.2 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 24 Sept | 36.1 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 25 Sept | 36.5 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 26 Sept | 35.8 °C | 11 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 27 Sept | 34.0 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 28 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 1.3 mm | Very high 43 |
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 · 253Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,816 haKapako10 September 2022 · 14 days · 20 km away
- 21,488 haRundu Rural West30 August 2017 · 20 days · 22 km away
- 11,247 haRundu Rural WestAugust 2026 · 20 days · 27 km away
- 17,533 haRundu Rural WestOctober 2018 · 12 days · 29 km away
- 34,882 haKapako10 August 2023 · 17 days · 35 km away
- 10,432 haRundu Rural West24 October 2024 · 6 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kapako fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 September 2017 and 27 September 2017: 9 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 6,557 hectares (65.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kapako (6,532 ha, 1.0 %); Rundu Rural West (46 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 43 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
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.