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NA · Namibia · →

Mukwe fire, May 2023 Mukwe

Out · last detection 11 Jun 2023, 23:32 UTC

The fire started on 23 May 2023 in Mukwe, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,557 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 39th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 394 with a page). Number 16 in Namibia in 2023, of 111.

Burnt area
11,557ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
23 May 2023 – 10 Jun 2023
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
23 May
2023
Heat detections
457
in a single hotspot: 129 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jun 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 May10 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728293031123456791011

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
40km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,000 ha in 2017, 681 ha in 2018, 331 ha in 2020, 4,522 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,415 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mukwe where it started
    10,720 ha reached on 22 May
    1.9 %

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)
22 May 30.6 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 May 31.3 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 May 30.7 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 May 30.8 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 May 30.8 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 May 30.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 May 29.3 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 May 29.0 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 May 30.9 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 May 27.9 °C 36 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Jun 29.8 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Jun 30.9 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Jun 31.1 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Jun 30.1 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Jun 31.0 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jun 30.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Jun 29.5 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Jun 29.2 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Jun 30.6 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jun 29.2 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Jun after 29.5 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Jun after 29.8 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Jun after 24.0 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Jun after 26.2 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Jun after 27.2 °C 15 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Jun after 28.1 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Jun after 27.4 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jun after 27.4 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Jun after 27.0 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Jun after 27.5 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jun after 27.5 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 May 2023
After · 17 Jun 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 · 457Every 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 23 May 2023 and 10 June 2023: 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 11,557 hectares (115.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mukwe (10,720 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
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.