Kapako fire, 23 August 2026 Kapako, Kahenge
The fire started on 23 August 2026 in Kapako, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,709 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 102th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 102 in Namibia in 2026, of 153.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.3 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
- 2,709ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 23 Aug 2026 – 27 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- constituencies
- Started on
- 23 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 69
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Danger at start
- 62
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 471MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 474 ha in 2017, 587 ha in 2020, 2,290 ha in 2022, 1,989 ha in 2024, 27 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,568 ha that had burned before.
- 2,290 ha Kapako fire, September 2022 14,816 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,989 ha Kapako fire, July 2024 2,726 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 27 ha Kapako fire, September 2025 5,012 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Kapako fire, September 2020 2,304 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kapako where it started2,062 ha reached on 23 Aug0.3 %
-
657 ha reached on 23 Aug0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Aug | 32.1 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 24 Aug | 32.4 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 25 Aug | 31.6 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Aug | 32.0 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 27 Aug | 31.7 °C | 12 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 28 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 29 Aug after | 29.6 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 30 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 31 Aug after | 33.5 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 1 Sept after | 34.7 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 2 Sept after | 33.5 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 3 Sept after | 34.6 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 4 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 5 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 6 Sept after | 32.7 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 30 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 69Every 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 23 August 2026 and 27 August 2026: 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 2,709 hectares (27.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kapako (2,062 ha, 0.3 %); Kahenge (657 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.