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Mashare fire, 12 September 2016 Mashare

Out · last detection 28 Sept 2016, 23:13 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2016 in Mashare, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,450 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 32th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 394 with a page). Number 6 in Namibia in 2016, of 108.

Burnt area
13,450ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
12 Sept 2016 – 27 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
12 Sept
2016
Heat detections
484
in a single hotspot: 205 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
8.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718192021222324252628

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
52km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Mashare where it started
    13,515 ha reached on 10 Sept
    1.5 %

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)
10 Sept 36.7 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Sept 35.1 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
12 Sept 36.0 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Sept 35.7 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept 35.6 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
15 Sept 36.0 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Sept 33.7 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Sept 30.8 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
18 Sept 29.3 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
19 Sept 32.0 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Sept 33.1 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept 34.4 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Sept 35.4 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Sept 35.2 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Sept 36.5 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Sept 36.6 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
26 Sept 36.1 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
27 Sept 34.6 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 Sept after 34.8 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Sept after 35.6 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Sept after 36.7 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Oct after 36.8 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Oct after 35.9 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Oct after 34.6 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
4 Oct after 33.8 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Oct after 35.0 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Oct after 36.2 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
7 Oct after 37.4 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Oct after 32.4 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
9 Oct after 34.3 °C 7 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2016
After · 4 Oct 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 · 484Every 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 Mashare fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2016 and 27 September 2016: 16 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 13,450 hectares (134.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mashare (13,515 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.