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Linyanti fire, September 2018 Linyanti

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2018, 23:44 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2018 in Linyanti, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,343 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 5th largest in Zambezi since 2016 (of 107 with a page). Number 11 in Namibia in 2018, of 83.

Burnt area
10,343ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
13 Sept 2018 – 26 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
13 Sept
2018
Heat detections
649
in a single hotspot: 152 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
46km/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

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 175 ha in 2016, 1,196 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,280 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Linyanti where it started
    10,393 ha reached on 11 Sept
    2.8 %

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 31.0 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Sept 32.9 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Sept 33.9 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 34.7 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept 35.6 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 36.8 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Sept 37.3 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Sept 37.5 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Sept 36.7 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Sept 35.6 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept 35.9 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
22 Sept 34.9 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
23 Sept 35.1 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
24 Sept 34.9 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Sept 36.0 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Sept 36.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Sept after 36.8 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Sept after 37.2 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Sept after 35.9 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Sept after 33.7 °C 22 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
1 Oct after 31.0 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 51
2 Oct after 32.8 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Oct after 34.4 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Oct after 35.7 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Oct after 33.9 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Oct after 35.3 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2018
After · 3 Oct 2018

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 · 649Every 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 13 September 2018 and 26 September 2018: 14 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 10,343 hectares (103.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Linyanti (10,393 ha, 2.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.

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 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.