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Mpungu fire, 31 August 2023 Mpungu

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2023, 13:12 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2023 in Mpungu, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,750 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 96th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 69 in Namibia in 2023, of 111.

Burnt area
2,750ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
31 Aug 2023 – 7 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
31 Aug
2023
Heat detections
137
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

311234567

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
41km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 356 ha in 2016, 991 ha in 2018, 47 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,099 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpungu where it started
    2,760 ha reached on 30 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
31 Aug 30.8 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept 32.9 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept 33.8 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Sept 35.0 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Sept 35.0 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Sept 34.8 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Sept 34.2 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
7 Sept 35.0 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Sept after 35.5 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Sept after 35.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Sept after 35.9 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Sept after 34.6 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
12 Sept after 26.9 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
13 Sept after 32.8 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Sept after 35.1 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Sept after 36.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Sept after 36.2 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept after 35.8 °C 8 % 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.

Before · 24 Aug 2023
After · 14 Sept 2023

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 · 137Every 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 Mpungu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2023 and 7 September 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 2,750 hectares (27.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mpungu (2,760 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.

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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.