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Lethlakane fire, September 2023 Lethlakane

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2023, 23:08 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2023 in Lethlakane, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,503 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 95th largest in Central District since 2016 (of 205 with a page). Number 167 in Botswana in 2023, of 381.

Burnt area
3,503ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
11 Sept 2023 – 11 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
11 Sept
2023
Heat detections
86
in a single hotspot: 104 MW
Danger at start
77
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

11

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
52km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,237 ha in 2017, 384 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Lethlakane where it started
    3,522 ha reached on 11 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
11 Sept 33.6 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
12 Sept after 26.3 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
13 Sept after 26.2 °C 35 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept after 30.2 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Sept after 34.6 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept after 37.2 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
17 Sept after 35.1 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Sept after 34.2 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
19 Sept after 36.2 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
20 Sept after 35.7 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Sept after 36.6 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2023
After · 18 Sept 2023

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 · 86Every 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 Botswana ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lethlakane fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2023 and 11 September 2023: 1 day 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 3,503 hectares (35.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lethlakane (3,522 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 77, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Botswana (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.

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 geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.