Skip to content
worldfires
NA · Namibia · →

Linyanti fire, 15 April 2016 Linyanti

Out · last detection 21 Apr 2016, 12:03 UTC

The fire started on 15 April 2016 in Linyanti, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,638 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 30th largest in Zambezi since 2016 (of 107 with a page). Number 47 in Namibia in 2016, of 108.

Burnt area
3,638ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
15 Apr 2016 – 22 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
15 Apr
2016
Heat detections
110
in a single hotspot: 94 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Apr22 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021

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
36km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 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. Linyanti where it started
    2,177 ha reached on 15 Apr
    0.6 %

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)
15 Apr 29.9 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Apr 29.8 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Apr 31.8 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Apr 32.5 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
19 Apr 33.0 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 Apr 33.2 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Apr 32.9 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Apr 33.3 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Apr after 33.8 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Apr after 33.1 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Apr after 31.4 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Apr after 30.6 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Apr after 30.5 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Apr after 29.6 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Apr after 29.8 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Apr after 31.7 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 May after 32.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 May after 31.2 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Apr 2016
After · 29 Apr 2016

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 · 110Every 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 Linyanti fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 April 2016 and 22 April 2016: 8 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 3,638 hectares (36.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Linyanti (2,177 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class High.
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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.