Mashare fire, 19 July 2024 Mashare, Ndiyona
The fire started on 19 July 2024 in Mashare, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,468 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 48th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 394 with a page). Number 2 in Namibia in 2024, of 43.
- Burnt area
- 10,468ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 19 Jul 2024 – 29 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- constituencies
- Started on
- 19 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 110
- in a single hotspot: 84 MW
- Danger at start
- 51
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,879 ha in 2016, 615 ha in 2018, 6,633 ha in 2020, 394 ha in 2022, 667 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,187 ha that had burned before.
- 6,633 ha Mashare fire, September 2020 56,605 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 695 ha Mashare fire, September 2016 13,450 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 615 ha Mashare fire, September 2018 2,037 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 498 ha Mashare fire, September 2023 2,324 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 153 ha Ndiyona fire, August 2023 2,074 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 120 ha Mashare fire, September 2022 9,430 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16 ha Mashare fire, October 2023 3,103 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mashare where it started10,279 ha reached on 17 Jul1.1 %
-
246 ha reached on 20 Jul0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jul | 30.6 °C | 12 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 20 Jul | 30.3 °C | 11 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 21 Jul | 30.8 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 22 Jul | 31.1 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Jul | 31.4 °C | 10 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 24 Jul | 31.5 °C | 9 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 25 Jul | 31.5 °C | 8 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Jul | 32.1 °C | 8 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Jul | 32.1 °C | 6 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 28 Jul | 29.9 °C | 6 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 29 Jul | 28.0 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Jul after | 31.4 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 31 Jul after | 30.2 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 1 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 2 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 3 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Aug after | 31.5 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 5 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 8 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 31 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 110Every 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 19 July 2024 and 29 July 2024: 11 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 10,468 hectares (104.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mashare (10,279 ha, 1.1 %); Ndiyona (246 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 34 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 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.