Burned area
satellite only2,230ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 18 Jul 2019 – 30 Jul 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
ZA · South Africa · –
Ngquza Hill fire, 18 July 2019 Ngquza Hill
Out · last detection 30 Jul 2019, 11:52 UTC
The fire started on 18 July 2019 in Ngquza Hill, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,230 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 132th largest in Eastern Cape since 2016 (of 152 with a page). Number 107 in South Africa in 2019, of 130.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only13days
18 Jul 2019 to 30 Jul 2019: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 30 Jul 2019, 11:52 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only18 Jul 2019
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 18 Jul 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only75
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 58 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 18 Jul 2019 – 30 Jul 2019
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only854MW
Total radiative power on 24 July 2019; hotspots that day: 55.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 24 Jul 2019
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model28.7FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 34.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 18 Jul 2019, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model31.1°C · 9% RH
High of 31.1 °C and minimum humidity of 9% on 23 July 2019; gusts of 83 km/h on 24 July 2019.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 18 Jul 2019 – 30 Jul 2019
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 200people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 3.4 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
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.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 25 July 2019 → 30 July 2019.
-
logStart date: 21 July 2019 → 18 July 2019.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 27 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 2,230 ha
- Dates
- 18 Jul 2019 – 30 Jul 2019
- Name
- Ngquza Hill
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/ngquza-hill-2019-07?v=2026-10-27A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire ngquza-hill-2019-07.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-07-18 | 0 | 0 | 28.5 | 14.8 | 19 | 13.7 | 29.2 | 0 | 28.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-19 | 0 | 0 | 27.5 | 13.5 | 14 | 27.8 | 63 | 0.9 | 37.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-20 | 0 | 0 | 15.8 | 8.6 | 26 | 34.4 | 75.6 | 0.6 | 34.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-21 | 1 | 1 | 16.5 | 7.1 | 35 | 21.1 | 45 | 0 | 23.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-22 | 0 | 0 | 26.5 | 6.5 | 16 | 11.5 | 30.6 | 0 | 25.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-23 | 4 | 5 | 31.1 | 11.6 | 9 | 18.9 | 42.8 | 0 | 40.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-24 | 55 | 854 | 21.7 | 10.5 | 16 | 39.2 | 83.2 | 0 | 58.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2019-07-25 | 12 | 65 | 23.8 | 10.5 | 23 | 12.3 | 29.2 | 0 | 28.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-26 | 0 | 0 | 20.9 | 9.8 | 41 | 18.4 | 38.2 | 0 | 24.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-27 | 1 | 2 | 26.6 | 10.4 | 28 | 16.7 | 35.6 | 0 | 25.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-28 | 1 | 2 | 29.1 | 13.3 | 13 | 14.3 | 28.1 | 0 | 33.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-29 | 0 | 0 | 30.4 | 13.5 | 15 | 15.4 | 35.3 | 0 | 35 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-30 | 1 | 4 | 30.5 | 13.4 | 12 | 15.4 | 31.3 | 0 | 37.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-07-31 | 0 | 0 | 20.2 | 13.2 | 56 | 16.3 | 38.5 | 0.1 | 20.4 | moderado | 0 |
| 2019-08-01 | 0 | 0 | 17.8 | 13 | 65 | 20.2 | 42.1 | 0.4 | 16.7 | moderado | 0 |
| 2019-08-02 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 12.7 | 26 | 21.7 | 46.1 | 0 | 30.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-08-03 | 0 | 0 | 19.4 | 13.8 | 33 | 21.6 | 49.3 | 2.1 | 10.6 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 2,230ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 18 Jul 2019 – 30 Jul 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 75
- in a single hotspot: 58 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 133MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
18 Jul30 Jul
30 Jul 2019
How it evolved, day by day
21 Jul
24 Jul
27 Jul
30 Jul
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
83km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity
It had gone 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 3 Aug.
This area had burned before
3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 58 ha in 2016.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Ngquza Hill where it started2,242 ha reached on 21 Jul0.9 %
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 2020Built-up area3.4 ha
Residents≈ 200
Inside the perimeter there were about 3.4 hectares of built-up land and about 200 residents (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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul | 28.5 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Jul | 27.5 °C | 14 % | 63 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 38 |
| 20 Jul | 15.8 °C | 26 % | 76 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 35 |
| 21 Jul | 16.5 °C | 35 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Jul | 26.5 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Jul | 31.1 °C | 9 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Jul | 21.7 °C | 16 % | 83 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 25 Jul | 23.8 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Jul | 20.9 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 27 Jul | 26.6 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Jul | 29.1 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Jul | 30.4 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Jul | 30.5 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Jul after | 20.2 °C | 56 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 1 Aug after | 17.8 °C | 65 % | 42 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 2 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 3 Aug after | 19.4 °C | 33 % | 49 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 11 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 28.7, a minimum humidity of 19% and 34 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.
FWI at the start
28.7
Minimum humidity
19 %
Days without rain
34
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Ngquza Hill fire, 18 July 2019
2,230 ha
13 days
FWI 28.7
Min. humidity 19 %
Elundini fire, August 2023
3,598 ha
2 days
FWI 26.9
Min. humidity 18 %
155 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Senqu fire, September 2022
8,006 ha
4 days
FWI 24.2
Min. humidity 20 %
223 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 17 Sept.
Greater Kokstad fire, July 2024
4,101 ha
4 days
FWI 32.7
Min. humidity 15 %
147 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Senqu fire, September 2022
2,880 ha
4 days
FWI 33.2
Min. humidity 18 %
179 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.2 mm on 12 Sept.
Elundini fire, August 2017
2,593 ha
1 day
FWI 26.3
Min. humidity 23 %
145 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 12 Aug.
What happened to them
- 4 days
- median duration
- 2,852 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 1.9 mm
- rain at the end (median; 18 of 28 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (2,230 ha against a median of 2,852 ha) and lasted 13 days, against 4 days.
In 10 of 28, 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 1.9 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
2.1 mmfirst rain
3 Aug4 days after it ended
83km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 30 Jul, and on 3 Aug 2.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 28, with a median of 1.9 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 11 Jul 2019
After · 6 Aug 2019
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 75Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ngquza Hill fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 July 2019 to 30 July 2019 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 July 2019 to 25 July 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,230 hectares (22.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ngquza Hill (2,242 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 83 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Africa (geoBoundaries). 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: 28. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 2,852 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 10 of 28, 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 1.9 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.
Emergency number: 10177 · 112 · Emergency number and official warnings
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.
- Last day with fire: 25 July 2019 → 30 July 2019.
- Start date: 21 July 2019 → 18 July 2019.
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.
Report an error
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 21 July 2019 to 25 July 2019. 75 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.
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 geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 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.