Skip to content
worldfires
NA · Namibia · →

Kapako fire, 9 September 2018 Kapako

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2018, 12:02 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2018 in Kapako, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,443 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 40th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 25 in Namibia in 2018, of 83.

Burnt area
4,443ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
9 Sept 2018 – 18 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
9 Sept
2018
Heat detections
144
in a single hotspot: 90 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

912131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
44km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,359 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Kapako where it started
    4,462 ha reached on 9 Sept
    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)
9 Sept 26.0 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Sept 27.6 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Sept 30.6 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Sept 32.6 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 33.8 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Sept 33.7 °C 6 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Sept 35.4 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Sept 36.1 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Sept 36.2 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Sept 36.6 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Sept after 36.3 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Sept after 34.1 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
21 Sept after 35.1 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
22 Sept after 35.3 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
23 Sept after 34.9 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Sept after 35.0 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Sept after 35.1 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Sept after 35.2 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Sept after 35.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 51
28 Sept after 36.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2018
After · 25 Sept 2018

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 · 144Every 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 9 September 2018 and 18 September 2018: 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 4,443 hectares (44.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kapako (4,462 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.