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Madibeng fire, September 2017 Madibeng

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2017, 12:00 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2017 in Madibeng, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,243 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 36th largest in North West since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 47 in South Africa in 2017, of 128.

Burnt area
4,243ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
12 Sept 2017 – 15 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Sept
2017
Heat detections
146
in a single hotspot: 150 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12131415

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
35km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 25 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Madibeng where it started
    4,247 ha reached on 11 Sept
    1.1 %

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)
12 Sept 34.0 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Sept 31.8 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 33.4 °C 8 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Sept 30.8 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept after 32.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Sept after 31.4 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 55
18 Sept after 27.6 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Sept after 28.0 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Sept after 30.9 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Sept after 30.0 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept after 32.1 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Sept after 34.3 °C 15 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
24 Sept after 26.3 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Sept after 29.3 °C 29 % 37 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2017
After · 22 Sept 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 · 146Every 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 Madibeng fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2017 and 15 September 2017: 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 4,243 hectares (42.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Madibeng (4,247 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 35 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
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.