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Kapako fire, 21 August 2026 Kapako, Rundu Rural West

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2026, 12:27 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2026 in Kapako, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 81,781 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 2 in Namibia in 2026, of 153.

Burnt area
81,781ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
21 Aug 2026 – 18 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
constituencies
Started on
21 Aug
2026
Heat detections
2,428
in a single hotspot: 277 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
34.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

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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
53km/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

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,651 ha in 2016, 16,546 ha in 2017, 12,426 ha in 2018, 15,353 ha in 2019, 9,112 ha in 2020, 12,587 ha in 2021, 11,195 ha in 2022, 21,534 ha in 2023, 17,264 ha in 2024, 130 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 69,612 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kapako where it started
    53,044 ha reached on 21 Aug
    8.5 %
  2. Rundu Rural West
    29,221 ha reached on 23 Aug
    14 %

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)
21 Aug 30.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Aug 30.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Aug 31.5 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Aug 31.6 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Aug 30.8 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Aug 31.3 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Aug 30.9 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Aug 29.3 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Aug 28.8 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Aug 30.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Aug 32.8 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Sept 34.0 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Sept 32.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Sept 33.7 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 31.4 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Sept 29.9 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Sept 32.0 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Sept 34.5 °C 6 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Sept 33.2 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Sept 30.2 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Sept 29.5 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Sept 30.7 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept 32.4 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept 34.2 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Sept 32.2 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Sept 33.8 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Sept 35.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Sept 35.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Sept 34.2 °C 15 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Sept after 27.4 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 29.5 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Sept after 27.5 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
22 Sept after 32.5 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept after 32.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept after 34.9 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Sept after 35.2 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Sept after 36.2 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Sept after 36.3 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Sept after 36.8 °C 14 % 32 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 · 14 Aug 2026
After · 25 Sept 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 14 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 55 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak55 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM1057 µg/m³
Optical depth1.05
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Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 2,428Every 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 21 August 2026 and 18 September 2026: 29 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 81,781 hectares (817.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kapako (53,044 ha, 8.5 %); Rundu Rural West (29,221 ha, 14 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 53 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.

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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.