Mashare fire, 22 September 2022 Mashare, Tsumkwe
The fire started on 22 September 2022 in Mashare, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,762 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 19th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 394 with a page). Number 4 in Namibia in 2022, of 119.
- Burnt area
- 19,762ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 22 Sept 2022 – 10 Oct 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- constituencies
- Started on
- 22 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 1,015
- in a single hotspot: 344 MW
- Danger at start
- 60
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 15.3GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 17 Oct.
This area had burned before
48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 617 ha in 2017, 6,165 ha in 2018, 3,814 ha in 2020, 34 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,542 ha that had burned before.
- 3,151 ha Mashare fire, September 2018 4,305 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,215 ha Mashare fire, September 2020 2,028 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 686 ha Tsumkwe fire, August 2018 17,069 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 579 ha Mashare fire, September 2020 2,245 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 369 ha Tsumkwe fire, September 2020 6,471 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 34 ha Mashare fire, September 2021 6,849 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Mashare fire, October 2018 8,378 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mashare where it started12,153 ha reached on 15 Sept1.3 %
-
7,719 ha reached on 15 Sept0.3 %
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 Sept | 31.7 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 16 Sept | 30.7 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 17 Sept | 31.6 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Sept | 33.9 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 19 Sept | 32.4 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 20 Sept | 26.2 °C | 12 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 21 Sept | 29.2 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 22 Sept | 33.1 °C | 6 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Sept | 34.2 °C | 6 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 24 Sept | 35.9 °C | 8 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 25 Sept | 35.3 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 26 Sept | 35.5 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 27 Sept | 35.7 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 28 Sept | 36.1 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 29 Sept | 34.5 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 30 Sept | 35.4 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 1 Oct | 36.5 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 2 Oct | 36.4 °C | 10 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 3 Oct | 36.7 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 4 Oct | 37.4 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 5 Oct | 38.2 °C | 8 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 6 Oct | 37.1 °C | 10 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 7 Oct | 37.2 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 8 Oct | 35.4 °C | 8 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 9 Oct | 34.8 °C | 9 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 10 Oct | 35.0 °C | 9 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 11 Oct after | 34.6 °C | 10 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 12 Oct after | 34.7 °C | 12 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 13 Oct after | 35.3 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 14 Oct after | 36.3 °C | 10 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 15 Oct after | 35.8 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 16 Oct after | 30.1 °C | 19 % | 48 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 17 Oct after | 28.6 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 37 |
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 · 1,015Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,069 haTsumkwe29 August 2018 · 9 days · 10 km away
- 21,713 haMashare1 August 2026 · 18 days · 13 km away
- 20,841 haMashare6 September 2017 · 13 days · 23 km away
- 43,409 haTsumkwe25 August 2026 · 14 days · 27 km away
- 22,848 haMashare6 September 2023 · 13 days · 33 km away
- 27,361 haMashare26 July 2026 · 9 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mashare fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 September 2022 and 10 October 2022: 19 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 19,762 hectares (197.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mashare (12,153 ha, 1.3 %); Tsumkwe (7,719 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 81, 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.
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.