Mpungu fire, 17 August 2023 Mpungu
The fire started on 17 August 2023 in Mpungu, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,871 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 62th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 56 in Namibia in 2023, of 111.
- Burnt area
- 3,871ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 17 Aug 2023 – 24 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- constituencies
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 138
- in a single hotspot: 33 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,379 ha in 2018, 1,327 ha in 2021, 417 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,473 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mpungu where it started3,884 ha reached on 17 Aug0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Aug | 32.4 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 18 Aug | 33.5 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Aug | 33.2 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 20 Aug | 34.1 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 21 Aug | 35.1 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Aug | 34.7 °C | 10 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Aug | 34.6 °C | 6 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 24 Aug | 34.4 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 25 Aug after | 34.7 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 27 Aug after | 29.1 °C | 9 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 28 Aug after | 28.8 °C | 26 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 29 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 25 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 30 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 31 Aug after | 30.8 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 3 Sept after | 35.0 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
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 · 138Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,507 haMpunguAugust 2018 · 22 days · 3 km away
- 9,223 haMpungu25 August 2026 · 33 days · 10 km away
- 10,404 haMpungu4 October 2018 · 14 days · 17 km away
- 6,939 haMpungu24 August 2026 · 21 days · 17 km away
- 6,922 haMpungu28 September 2016 · 4 days · 30 km away
- 9,649 haKahenge15 September 2016 · 7 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mpungu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2023 and 24 August 2023: 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 3,871 hectares (38.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpungu (3,884 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.