Burned area
satellite only2,079ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 15 Sept 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
NA · Namibia · –
Kongola fire, September 2023 Kongola, Sibbinda
Out · last detection 19 Sept 2023, 23:57 UTC
The fire started on 15 September 2023 in Kongola, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,079 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 76th largest in Zambezi since 2016 (of 87 with a page). Number 108 in Namibia in 2023, of 111.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only5days
15 Sept 2023 to 19 Sept 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 19 Sept 2023, 23:57 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only15 Sept 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 15 Sept 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only79
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 133 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 15 Sept 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,123MW
Total radiative power on 16 September 2023; hotspots that day: 27.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 16 Sept 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model49.7FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 15 Sept 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.9°C · 9% RH
High of 36.9 °C and minimum humidity of 9% on 17 September 2023; gusts of 42 km/h on 18 September 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 15 Sept 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 150people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 3.2 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 2,079 ha
- Dates
- 15 Sept 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
- Name
- Kongola
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/kongola-2023-09?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire kongola-2023-09.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-09-15 | 0 | 0 | 33.7 | 18.6 | 18 | 14.8 | 32 | 0 | 49.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-16 | 27 | 1,123 | 34.8 | 16.3 | 11 | 11.2 | 27.4 | 0 | 46.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-09-17 | 13 | 287 | 36.9 | 18.3 | 9 | 11.4 | 29.9 | 0 | 50.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-09-18 | 33 | 269 | 36.5 | 20.6 | 12 | 18.4 | 42.5 | 0 | 59.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-09-19 | 6 | 13 | 35.9 | 24.9 | 14 | 18.6 | 42.1 | 0 | 59.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-09-20 | 0 | 0 | 35.1 | 23.4 | 17 | 12.5 | 32 | 0 | 50 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-21 | 0 | 0 | 36.5 | 21.1 | 12 | 15.9 | 38.9 | 0 | 54.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-22 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 22.7 | 13 | 19.6 | 42.8 | 0 | 59.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-23 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 21 | 10 | 18.4 | 39.6 | 0 | 58.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-24 | 0 | 0 | 37.1 | 23.1 | 14 | 18.4 | 42.1 | 0 | 58.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-25 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 23.8 | 16 | 17.4 | 36 | 0 | 57.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-26 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 18.9 | 11 | 18.4 | 39.2 | 0 | 58.9 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-27 | 0 | 0 | 31.8 | 19.6 | 15 | 15.5 | 37.1 | 0 | 53.2 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-28 | 0 | 0 | 34.4 | 17.4 | 11 | 13.8 | 33.5 | 0 | 51.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2023-09-29 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 19.2 | 15 | 11.4 | 25.9 | 0 | 48.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 2,079ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 15 Sept 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- constituencies
- Started on
- 15 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 79
- in a single hotspot: 133 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 423MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
15 Sept19 Sept
19 Sept 2023
How it evolved, day by day
16 Sept
17 Sept
18 Sept
19 Sept
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
37°high
42km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 22 ha in 2017, 1,524 ha in 2019, 924 ha in 2020, 1,473 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,954 ha that had burned before.
- 1,524 ha Kongola fire, September 2019 2,721 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,473 ha Kongola fire, October 2022 3,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 924 ha Kongola fire, October 2020 2,831 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 22 ha Kongola fire, September 2017 2,604 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Kongola where it started1,985 ha reached on 16 Sept0.4 %
-
103 ha0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area3.2 ha
Residents≈ 150
Inside the perimeter there were about 3.2 hectares of built-up land and about 150 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 88 % of the area in Namibia
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Sept | 33.7 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 16 Sept | 34.8 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 17 Sept | 36.9 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 18 Sept | 36.5 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Sept | 35.9 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 20 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 21 Sept after | 36.5 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 22 Sept after | 36.8 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 23 Sept after | 36.8 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 24 Sept after | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 25 Sept after | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 26 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 11 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 27 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Sept after | 34.4 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 29 Sept after | 35.0 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 49.7, a minimum humidity of 18% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.
FWI at the start
49.7
Minimum humidity
18 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Kongola fire, September 2023
2,079 ha
5 days
FWI 49.7
Min. humidity 18 %
Linyanti fire, September 2021
2,636 ha
5 days
FWI 49.7
Min. humidity 17 %
40 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 2 Oct.
Sioma fire, September 2018
11,042 ha
21 days
FWI 50.4
Min. humidity 19 %
94 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Sesheke fire, August 2021
3,136 ha
8 days
FWI 50.1
Min. humidity 16 %
57 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Kongola fire, September 2018
2,309 ha
13 days
FWI 48.2
Min. humidity 18 %
132 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Sesheke fire, August 2020
3,016 ha
4 days
FWI 48.7
Min. humidity 17 %
104 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 7 days
- median duration
- 3,016 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 1.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 2 of 17 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (2,079 ha against a median of 3,016 ha) and lasted 5 days, against 7 days.
In 15 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
42km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 19 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 2 of 17, with a median of 1.8 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 8 Sept 2023
After · 26 Sept 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 18 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak26 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1038 µg/m³
Optical depth0.81
WHO 15
13 Sept15 Sept17 Sept19 Sept21 Sept
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 · 79Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kongola fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2023 and 19 September 2023: 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 2,079 hectares (20.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kongola (1,985 ha, 0.4 %); Sibbinda (103 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 17. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 3,016 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 15 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.
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
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 79 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.