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Kapako fire, 14 September 2020 Kapako

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2020, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2020 in Kapako, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,837 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 92th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 90 in Namibia in 2020, of 146.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,837ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
14 Sept 2020 – 18 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
14 Sept
2020
Heat detections
90
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
885MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
42km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 591 ha in 2016, 19 ha in 2017, 158 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Kapako where it started
    2,844 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
14 Sept 33.7 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Sept 34.6 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 33.4 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Sept 35.5 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Sept 35.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Sept after 36.9 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Sept after 36.9 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Sept after 36.3 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept after 37.4 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Sept after 36.4 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
24 Sept after 36.5 °C 11 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
25 Sept after 36.7 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Sept after 36.9 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
27 Sept after 37.2 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Sept after 37.2 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2020
After · 25 Sept 2020

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 · 90Every 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 14 September 2020 and 18 September 2020: 5 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 2,837 hectares (28.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kapako (2,844 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.