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NA · Namibia · –

Ndiyona fire, 28 August 2022 Ndiyona

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2022, 13:05 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2022 in Ndiyona, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,882 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 332 with a page). Number 5 in Namibia in 2022, of 119.

Burnt area
17,882ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
28 Aug 2022 – 17 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
28 Aug
2022
Heat detections
672
in a single hotspot: 259 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
489MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug17 Sept
15 Sept 2022

How it evolved, day by day

28 Aug 2022 · 300 MW · 11 29 Aug 2022 · 49 MW · 6 30 Aug 2022 · 532 MW · 32 31 Aug 2022 · 355 MW · 34 1 Sept 2022 · 54 MW · 8 2 Sept 2022 · 27 MW · 3 3 Sept 2022 · 208 MW · 15 4 Sept 2022 · 1,093 MW · 43 5 Sept 2022 · 61 MW · 10 6 Sept 2022 · 77 MW · 24 7 Sept 2022 · 109 MW · 21 8 Sept 2022 · 342 MW · 23 9 Sept 2022 · 3,158 MW · 109 10 Sept 2022 · 1,545 MW · 150 11 Sept 2022 · 379 MW · 57 12 Sept 2022 · 657 MW · 56 13 Sept 2022 · 175 MW · 35 14 Sept 2022 · 68 MW · 12 15 Sept 2022 · 113 MW · 23
28 Aug 1 Sept 5 Sept 9 Sept 13 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
47km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 498 ha in 2016, 1,650 ha in 2017, 573 ha in 2018, 5,999 ha in 2019, 4,236 ha in 2020, 2,416 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,437 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 11% of the area of London (179 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Ndiyona where it started
    18,005 ha reached on 28 Aug
    2.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
28 Aug 31.6 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Aug 32.1 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug 32.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug 31.2 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Sept 28.9 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Sept 28.3 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Sept 28.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Sept 31.3 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept 33.6 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 34.0 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Sept 33.8 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Sept 32.9 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Sept 32.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Sept 32.6 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Sept 33.2 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept 34.3 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Sept 33.8 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Sept 32.3 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 Sept 31.3 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept 30.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 32.0 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept after 34.1 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Sept after 33.7 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Sept after 26.6 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
21 Sept after 29.4 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Sept after 32.6 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Sept after 34.4 °C 7 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Sept after 35.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Sept after 35.5 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
26 Sept after 35.0 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Sept after 35.7 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 43.3, a minimum humidity of 16% and 59 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 43.3
Minimum humidity 16 %
Days without rain 59
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Ngamiland West fire, July 2019
8,702 ha 14 days FWI 42.1 Min. humidity 16 % 60 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

7 days
median duration
5,243 ha
median area
13 %
went past 10,000 ha
—
rain at the end (median; 0 of 30 had it)

It was 3.4 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 21 days, against 7 days.

Only 2 of its 30 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
47km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 17 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 30 twins had rain when they ended.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Aug 2022
After · 24 Sept 2022

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 · Copernicus

On 19 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 47 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak47 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM1068 µg/m³
Optical depth0.87
26 Aug1 Sept7 Sept13 Sept19 Sept
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 672Every 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 28 August 2022 and 17 September 2022: 21 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 17,882 hectares (178.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ndiyona (18,005 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 30. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 5,243 ha; 13 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 30 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.

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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 672 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.