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Ndiyona fire, 9 September 2016 Ndiyona

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2016, 23:25 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2016 in Ndiyona, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,135 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 68th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 394 with a page). Number 12 in Namibia in 2016, of 108.

Burnt area
8,135ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
9 Sept 2016 – 21 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
9 Sept
2016
Heat detections
311
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

910111213141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
48km/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

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Ndiyona where it started
    8,170 ha reached on 9 Sept
    1.0 %

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)
9 Sept 35.9 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept 36.6 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Sept 34.8 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
12 Sept 35.7 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
13 Sept 35.6 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Sept 35.3 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
15 Sept 36.1 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
16 Sept 34.4 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Sept 31.4 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Sept 29.5 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
19 Sept 32.0 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Sept 33.4 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Sept 34.3 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Sept after 35.2 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Sept after 35.5 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept after 36.5 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Sept after 36.6 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Sept after 36.2 °C 10 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
27 Sept after 35.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Sept after 35.0 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Sept after 35.8 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Sept after 36.7 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Oct after 36.9 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2016
After · 28 Sept 2016

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 · 311Every 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 Ndiyona fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2016 and 21 September 2016: 13 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 8,135 hectares (81.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ndiyona (8,170 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.