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NA · Namibia · –

Ndiyona fire, 6 August 2024 Ndiyona

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2024, 12:02 UTC

The fire started on 6 August 2024 in Ndiyona, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,056 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 47th largest in Kavango East since 2016 (of 332 with a page). Number 5 in Namibia in 2024, of 43.

Burnt area
9,056ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
6 Aug 2024 – 17 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
6 Aug
2024
Heat detections
277
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
385MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Aug17 Aug
17 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

7 Aug 2024 · 552 MW · 22 8 Aug 2024 · 2,057 MW · 102 9 Aug 2024 · 118 MW · 33 10 Aug 2024 · 379 MW · 20 11 Aug 2024 · 130 MW · 13 12 Aug 2024 · 95 MW · 5 13 Aug 2024 · 147 MW · 10 14 Aug 2024 · 294 MW · 21 15 Aug 2024 · 390 MW · 39 16 Aug 2024 · 57 MW · 10 17 Aug 2024 · 14 MW · 2
8 Aug 13 Aug 16 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
44km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 515 ha in 2017, 7,110 ha in 2019, 5,510 ha in 2022, 211 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,164 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 5.7% of the area of London (91 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
    9,116 ha reached on 7 Aug
    1.1 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)

Started with Very dry air: 81 % of the area in Namibia 60 days without rain: 88 % of the area in Namibia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
6 Aug 29.7 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Aug 32.0 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Aug 32.6 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Aug 31.6 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Aug 32.1 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Aug 32.7 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Aug 31.8 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Aug 32.0 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Aug 31.0 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Aug 30.5 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Aug 31.0 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Aug 30.7 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Aug after 30.7 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Aug after 31.0 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Aug after 30.7 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Aug after 30.2 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Aug after 30.1 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Aug after 30.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Aug after 29.8 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
25 Aug after 30.0 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Aug after 31.2 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Aug after 32.4 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 49.3, a minimum humidity of 12% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 115.

FWI at the start 49.3
Minimum humidity 12 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Mashare fire, August 2019
10,603 ha 21 days FWI 49.4 Min. humidity 12 % 47 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
3,300 ha
median area
12 %
went past 10,000 ha
1.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 115 had it)

It was 2.7 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 12 days, against 7 days.

Only 17 of its 115 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 102 of 115, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.4 mm.

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
44km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 17 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 115, with a median of 1.4 mm.

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 · 30 Jul 2024
After · 24 Aug 2024

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 9 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak65 µg/m³
Days over the guideline3 days
PM1093 µg/m³
Optical depth1.28
5 Aug8 Aug11 Aug14 Aug17 Aug
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 · 277Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 August 2024 to 17 August 2024 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 August 2024 to 16 August 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,056 hectares (90.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ndiyona (9,116 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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: 115. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 3,300 ha; 12 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 17 of its 115 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 102 of 115, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.4 mm.

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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 16 August 2024 → 17 August 2024.
  2. Start date: 7 August 2024 → 6 August 2024.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 August 2024 to 16 August 2024. 277 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 2025, 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.