How long did the Mpungu fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2018 and 17 September 2018: 22 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 13,507 hectares (135.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpungu (13,154 ha, 1.6 %); Kahenge (397 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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.

NA · Namibia · 2018-08-27 → 2018-09-17

Mpungu fire, August 2018 Mpungu, Kahenge

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2018, 12:21 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2018 in Mpungu, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,507 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 5 in Namibia in 2018, of 83.

Burnt area: 13,507ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 22days; 27 Aug 2018 – 17 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit: 2; constituencies
Started on: 27 Aug; 2018
Heat detections: 533; in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start: 61; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 5.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Sept 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311234567891011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

50km/h · peak gust

5%lowest humidity

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 26 Sept.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 741 ha in 2016, 59 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

Mpungu where it started

13,154 ha reached on 27 Aug

1.6 %
Kahenge

397 ha reached on 15 Sept

0.0 %

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)
27 Aug	30.4 °C	12 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
28 Aug	28.6 °C	8 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
29 Aug	32.0 °C	12 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
30 Aug	32.2 °C	14 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
31 Aug	32.5 °C	14 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
1 Sept	32.8 °C	11 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
2 Sept	33.6 °C	8 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
3 Sept	33.5 °C	11 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
4 Sept	35.3 °C	10 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
5 Sept	35.5 °C	10 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
6 Sept	35.0 °C	14 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
7 Sept	32.3 °C	13 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
8 Sept	32.5 °C	9 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
9 Sept	28.3 °C	11 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
10 Sept	29.8 °C	7 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
11 Sept	32.2 °C	6 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
12 Sept	33.8 °C	5 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
13 Sept	34.9 °C	7 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
14 Sept	34.8 °C	5 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 64
15 Sept	36.5 °C	8 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
16 Sept	37.4 °C	7 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
17 Sept	37.3 °C	8 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
18 Sept after	37.8 °C	8 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
19 Sept after	37.8 °C	11 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
20 Sept after	35.5 °C	10 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very extreme 73
21 Sept after	36.6 °C	10 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 70
22 Sept after	36.3 °C	11 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
23 Sept after	36.2 °C	13 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
24 Sept after	36.7 °C	10 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 67
25 Sept after	36.2 °C	15 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
26 Sept after	35.8 °C	17 %	29 km/h	1.1 mm	Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 20 Aug 2018

After · 24 Sept 2018

Before After

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 · 533Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Namibia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mpungu fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2018 and 17 September 2018: 22 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 13,507 hectares (135.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpungu (13,154 ha, 1.6 %); Kahenge (397 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned