Mpungu fire, 19 September 2025 Mpungu
The fire started on 19 September 2025 in Mpungu, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,373 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 43th largest in Kavango West since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 37 in Namibia in 2025, of 87.
- Burnt area
- 4,373ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 19 Sept 2025 – 20 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- constituencies
- Started on
- 19 Sept
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 101
- in a single hotspot: 224 MW
- Danger at start
- 72
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- 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
64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,991 ha in 2016, 1,422 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,815 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mpungu where it started4,400 ha reached on 19 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Sept | 37.3 °C | 10 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 20 Sept | 37.0 °C | 7 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 21 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 19 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 22 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 32 % | 26 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 38 |
| 23 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Sept after | 36.3 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 26 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 27 Sept after | 35.2 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 28 Sept after | 34.3 °C | 7 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 29 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 30 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
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 47 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 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 · 101Every 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 19 September 2025 and 20 September 2025: 2 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 4,373 hectares (43.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpungu (4,400 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 78, 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.