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Otjombinde fire, 8 September 2020 Otjombinde

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2020, 12:14 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2020 in Otjombinde, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,855 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Omaheke since 2016 (of 61 with a page). Number 17 in Namibia in 2020, of 146.

Burnt area
7,855ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
8 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
8 Sept
2020
Heat detections
234
in a single hotspot: 141 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
47km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Otjombinde where it started
    7,899 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
8 Sept 30.6 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept 30.3 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
10 Sept 31.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Sept 30.6 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Sept 29.2 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept 30.3 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept 32.2 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Sept 33.1 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept 30.0 °C 4 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
17 Sept 32.5 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
18 Sept after 34.8 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Sept after 35.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Sept after 35.4 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Sept after 34.6 °C 8 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
22 Sept after 35.2 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
23 Sept after 33.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
24 Sept after 35.8 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Sept after 37.0 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Sept after 31.9 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
27 Sept after 34.3 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2020
After · 24 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 · 234Every 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 Otjombinde fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2020 and 17 September 2020: 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 7,855 hectares (78.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Otjombinde (7,899 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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.