Kapako fire, September 2019 Kapako, Rundu Rural West
The fire started on 26 September 2019 in Kapako, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,877 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 2 in Namibia in 2019, of 45.
- Burnt area
- 31,877ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 26 Sept 2019 – 9 Oct 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- constituencies
- Started on
- 26 Sept
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 1,147
- in a single hotspot: 424 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 18.6GW
- 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: 2.4 mm on 10 Oct.
This area had burned before
47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 16 ha in 2016, 14,783 ha in 2017, 385 ha in 2018.
- 6,119 ha Rundu Rural West fire, August 2017 9,064 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,936 ha Kapako fire, August 2017 4,582 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,482 ha Rundu Rural West fire, August 2017 3,788 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,164 ha Kapako fire, October 2017 3,758 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 238 ha Kapako fire, September 2018 4,443 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 135 ha Kapako fire, September 2017 2,538 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 43 ha Rundu Rural West fire, October 2018 17,533 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 36 ha Rundu Rural West fire, August 2017 21,488 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kapako where it started21,478 ha reached on 26 Sept3.5 %
-
10,571 ha reached on 30 Sept5.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Sept | 28.2 °C | 20 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 27 Sept | 28.1 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Sept | 30.2 °C | 7 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 29 Sept | 33.7 °C | 5 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 30 Sept | 31.4 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 1 Oct | 30.1 °C | 11 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 2 Oct | 32.7 °C | 6 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 3 Oct | 34.7 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 4 Oct | 35.4 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 5 Oct | 35.2 °C | 14 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 6 Oct | 36.9 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 7 Oct | 36.4 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 8 Oct | 37.8 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 9 Oct | 37.2 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 10 Oct after | 31.5 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 2.4 mm | Moderate 19 |
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 · 1,147Every 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 Kapako fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 September 2019 and 9 October 2019: 14 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 31,877 hectares (318.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kapako (21,478 ha, 3.5 %); Rundu Rural West (10,571 ha, 5.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.