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Okahao fire, September 2017 Okahao

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2017, 12:59 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2017 in Okahao, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,146 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 23th largest in Omusati since 2016 (of 41 with a page). Number 51 in Namibia in 2017, of 123.

Burnt area
3,146ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
10 Sept 2017 – 12 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
10 Sept
2017
Heat detections
29
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
64
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
490MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1112

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
42km/h · peak gust
9%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. Okahao where it started
    3,157 ha reached on 11 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
10 Sept 35.4 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
11 Sept 35.5 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
12 Sept 35.0 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Sept after 34.4 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Sept after 35.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
15 Sept after 33.8 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
16 Sept after 35.4 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
17 Sept after 36.5 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Sept after 36.6 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
19 Sept after 36.6 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
20 Sept after 35.9 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
21 Sept after 36.0 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
22 Sept after 36.5 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Sept 2017
After · 19 Sept 2017

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 · 29Every 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 Okahao fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 September 2017 and 12 September 2017: 3 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 3,146 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Okahao (3,157 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.