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NA · Namibia · →

Mukwe fire, 4 September 2017 Mukwe

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2017, 11:31 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2017 in Mukwe, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,853 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 119th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 394 with a page). Number 25 in Namibia in 2017, of 123.

Burnt area
4,853ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
4 Sept 2017 – 22 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
4 Sept
2017
Heat detections
172
in a single hotspot: 141 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

45678910111213141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
47km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 595 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mukwe where it started
    4,879 ha reached on 4 Sept
    0.9 %

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)
4 Sept 29.4 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Sept 30.1 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 32.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Sept 32.6 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Sept 33.4 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Sept 33.2 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Sept 33.7 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Sept 33.4 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept 33.2 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept 33.5 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept 34.1 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Sept 34.4 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Sept 34.8 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Sept 35.6 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept 36.0 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Sept 36.0 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Sept 35.4 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Sept 34.4 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 Sept 34.3 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Sept after 35.4 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Sept after 35.7 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Sept after 36.2 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Sept after 35.8 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Sept after 34.3 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Sept after 35.7 °C 15 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
29 Sept after 32.2 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Sept after 33.1 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 51
1 Oct after 33.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Oct after 33.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2017
After · 29 Sept 2017

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 · 172Every 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 Mukwe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 September 2017 and 22 September 2017: 19 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 4,853 hectares (48.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mukwe (4,879 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 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.