Mpungu fire, 11 September 2025 Mpungu
The fire started on 11 September 2025 in Mpungu, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,057 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 55th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 38 in Namibia in 2025, of 87.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 4,057ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 11 Sept 2025 – 21 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- constituencies
- Started on
- 11 Sept
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 76
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 715MW
- 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
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,059 ha in 2016, 122 ha in 2017, 644 ha in 2018, 1,177 ha in 2022, 6 ha in 2023, 109 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,402 ha that had burned before.
- 1,177 ha Mpungu fire, September 2022 5,604 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 374 ha Mpungu fire, October 2018 10,404 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 270 ha Mpungu fire, October 2018 4,693 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6 ha Mpungu fire, September 2023 2,507 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mpungu where it started4,068 ha reached on 11 Sept0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Sept | 34.6 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 12 Sept | 35.4 °C | 10 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 13 Sept | 35.7 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Sept | 35.5 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 15 Sept | 35.6 °C | 12 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 16 Sept | 36.2 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 17 Sept | 36.1 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 18 Sept | 37.4 °C | 9 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 19 Sept | 37.2 °C | 10 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 20 Sept | 37.0 °C | 7 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 21 Sept | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 22 Sept after | 28.4 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Sept after | 32.6 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Sept after | 36.5 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 26 Sept after | 36.0 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 6 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Sept after | 34.1 °C | 6 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 29 Sept after | 34.1 °C | 12 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 30 Sept after | 36.1 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 1 Oct after | 36.0 °C | 15 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
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 22 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 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 · 76Every 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 Mpungu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2025 and 21 September 2025: 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 4,057 hectares (40.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpungu (4,068 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 79, 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
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.