Lephalale fire, October 2023 Lephalale
The fire started on 22 October 2023 in Lephalale, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,747 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 44th largest in Limpopo since 2016 (of 210 with a page). Number 34 in South Africa in 2023, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 4,747ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 22 Oct 2023 – 25 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 263
- in a single hotspot: 219 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.2GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 29 Oct.
This area had burned before
68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 306 ha in 2017, 2,953 ha in 2018, 213 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,223 ha that had burned before.
- 1,520 ha Lephalale fire, September 2018 2,040 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,434 ha Lephalale fire, September 2018 3,716 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 254 ha Lephalale fire, September 2017 3,150 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 213 ha Modimolle/Mookgophong fire, October 2021 9,364 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lephalale where it started4,793 ha reached on 22 Oct0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Oct | 34.2 °C | 7 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Oct | 29.6 °C | 27 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Oct | 34.8 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Oct | 36.3 °C | 8 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 26 Oct after | 33.2 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 27 Oct after | 36.0 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Oct after | 34.5 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 29 Oct after | 29.0 °C | 30 % | 59 km/h | 1.9 mm | High 29 |
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.
Detections table · 263Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,614 haLephalaleSeptember 2026 · 2 days · 2 km away
- 9,364 haModimolle/MookgophongOctober 2021 · 6 days · 10 km away
- 6,067 haModimolle/MookgophongJuly 2023 · 6 days · 12 km away
- 19,024 haModimolle/Mookgophong15 October 2019 · 5 days · 13 km away
- 32,344 haModimolle/Mookgophong10 September 2017 · 14 days · 15 km away
- 5,027 haModimolle/Mookgophong10 October 2026 · 7 days · 15 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lephalale fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 October 2023 and 25 October 2023: 4 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 4,747 hectares (47.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lephalale (4,793 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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
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.