Mashare fire, 18 August 2020 Mashare
The fire started on 18 August 2020 in Mashare, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,112 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 115th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 394 with a page). Number 32 in Namibia in 2020, of 146.
- Burnt area
- 5,112ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 18 Aug 2020 – 25 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- constituencies
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 156
- in a single hotspot: 104 MW
- Danger at start
- 67
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,477 ha in 2016, 1,003 ha in 2017, 548 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,261 ha that had burned before.
- 1,003 ha Mashare fire, September 2017 14,682 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 888 ha Mashare fire, October 2016 10,674 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 188 ha Mashare fire, September 2018 2,609 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mashare where it started5,144 ha reached on 18 Aug0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Aug | 26.8 °C | 10 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 19 Aug | 21.4 °C | 10 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 20 Aug | 24.3 °C | 5 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 21 Aug | 27.2 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 22 Aug | 28.9 °C | 24 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 23 Aug | 27.8 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Aug | 30.1 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Aug | 31.8 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 26 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 27 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 29 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 30 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 31 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 1 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 19 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 2 Sept after | 30.6 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 3 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 4 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 17 % | 44 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.
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 · 156Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mashare fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2020 and 25 August 2020: 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 5,112 hectares (51.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mashare (5,144 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.
Report an error
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.