Skip to content
worldfires
NA · Namibia · →

Mashare fire, 8 August 2024 Mashare

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2024, 12:52 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2024 in Mashare, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 44,692 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 394 with a page). The largest in Namibia in 2024, of 43.

Burnt area
44,692ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
8 Aug 2024 – 9 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
8 Aug
2024
Heat detections
2,139
in a single hotspot: 185 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
24.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Sept 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
50km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15,263 ha in 2016, 11,106 ha in 2017, 9,980 ha in 2018, 9,642 ha in 2019, 10,863 ha in 2020, 24,425 ha in 2022, 833 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 39,610 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mashare where it started
    44,963 ha reached on 8 Aug
    4.9 %

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)
8 Aug 32.7 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Aug 31.7 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Aug 32.5 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
11 Aug 33.0 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Aug 32.1 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Aug 32.3 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Aug 31.3 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
15 Aug 30.7 °C 5 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
16 Aug 31.2 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Aug 31.0 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Aug 30.9 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Aug 31.2 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Aug 31.2 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Aug 30.5 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Aug 30.4 °C 8 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Aug 30.8 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Aug 30.0 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
25 Aug 30.5 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Aug 31.6 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Aug 32.6 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Aug 33.4 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Aug 32.4 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Aug 32.7 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
31 Aug 31.2 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Sept 29.1 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
2 Sept 28.8 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Sept 30.0 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Sept 30.4 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Sept 30.9 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept 32.2 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Sept 33.5 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Sept 34.7 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Sept 35.0 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Sept after 36.0 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Sept after 35.2 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Sept after 35.9 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
13 Sept after 36.6 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
14 Sept after 37.1 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
15 Sept after 37.3 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Sept after 37.7 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Sept after 36.2 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Sept after 36.2 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
19 Sept after 34.8 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Aug 2024
After · 16 Sept 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 9 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 37 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak37 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1053 µg/m³
Optical depth0.91
678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 2,139Every 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 8 August 2024 and 9 September 2024: 33 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 44,692 hectares (446.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mashare (44,963 ha, 4.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.