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Okongo fire, 15 September 2016 Okongo

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2016, 11:56 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2016 in Okongo, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,012 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

Number 37 in Namibia in 2016, of 108.

Burnt area
4,012ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
15 Sept 2016 – 22 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
15 Sept
2016
Heat detections
164
in a single hotspot: 415 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223

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
50km/h · peak gust
4%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. Okongo where it started
    4,034 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
15 Sept 35.3 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Sept 33.2 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
17 Sept 33.1 °C 4 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Sept 32.2 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
19 Sept 33.8 °C 6 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
20 Sept 35.9 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
21 Sept 36.0 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
22 Sept 36.3 °C 7 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Sept after 37.1 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Sept after 36.3 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Sept after 36.6 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
26 Sept after 36.5 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
27 Sept after 34.8 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 Sept after 36.3 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
29 Sept after 36.3 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
30 Sept after 37.5 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
1 Oct after 37.9 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Oct after 37.5 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2016
After · 29 Sept 2016

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 · 164Every 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 Okongo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2016 and 22 September 2016: 8 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 4,012 hectares (40.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Okongo (4,034 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very 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.