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Kouga fire, June 2017 Kouga, Nelson Mandela Bay, Sundays River Valley

Out · last detection 12 Jun 2017, 22:57 UTC

The fire started on 7 June 2017 in Kouga, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,635 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Eastern Cape since 2016 (of 185 with a page). Number 4 in South Africa in 2017, of 128.

Burnt area
20,635ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
7 Jun 2017 – 12 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
7 Jun
2017
Heat detections
1,179
in a single hotspot: 477 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
18.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jun12 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

789101112

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
94km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 days 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. Kouga where it started
    12,248 ha reached on 7 Jun
    4.6 %
  2. Nelson Mandela Bay
    5,480 ha reached on 7 Jun
    2.8 %
  3. Sundays River Valley
    2,965 ha reached on 8 Jun
    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)
7 Jun 24.1 °C 18 % 94 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
8 Jun 13.0 °C 34 % 79 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 47
9 Jun 16.6 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Jun 24.4 °C 10 % 63 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 54
11 Jun 17.7 °C 50 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Jun 23.0 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm High 30
13 Jun after 21.7 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Jun after 18.8 °C 52 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Jun after 17.1 °C 36 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Jun after 19.7 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Jun after 16.4 °C 21 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Jun after 17.6 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Jun after 28.6 °C 16 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jun after 13.8 °C 46 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jun after 19.3 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Jun after 16.2 °C 34 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 May 2017
After · 19 Jun 2017

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 · 1,179Every 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 South Africa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kouga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 June 2017 and 12 June 2017: 6 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 20,635 hectares (206.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kouga (12,248 ha, 4.6 %); Nelson Mandela Bay (5,480 ha, 2.8 %); Sundays River Valley (2,965 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 94 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Africa (geoBoundaries). 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.

Emergency number: 10177 · 112

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 10177 · 112.

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 geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 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.