Skip to content
worldfires
NA · Namibia · →

Okankolo fire, 8 September 2017 Eengodi, Okankolo

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2017, 12:40 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2017 in Okankolo, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,793 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Oshikoto since 2016 (of 99 with a page). Number 13 in Namibia in 2017, of 123.

Burnt area
7,793ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
8 Sept 2017 – 13 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
constituencies
Started on
8 Sept
2017
Heat detections
297
in a single hotspot: 91 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213

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
46km/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. Eengodi
    6,740 ha reached on 1 Sept
    0.9 %
  2. Okankolo where it started
    1,086 ha reached on 1 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)
8 Sept 35.0 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Sept 35.1 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Sept 35.5 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Sept 34.9 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 Sept 35.0 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
13 Sept 34.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Sept after 35.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Sept after 35.5 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Sept after 36.5 °C 8 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Sept after 36.3 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Sept after 36.5 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Sept after 36.4 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Sept after 36.0 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
21 Sept after 35.9 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
22 Sept after 36.1 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
23 Sept after 36.5 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2017
After · 20 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 · 297Every 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 Okankolo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2017 and 13 September 2017: 6 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 7,793 hectares (77.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Eengodi (6,740 ha, 0.9 %); Okankolo (1,086 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.