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NA · Namibia · →

Outjo fire, August 2017 Outjo

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2017, 12:02 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2017 in Outjo, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,431 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Kunene since 2016 (of 62 with a page). Number 9 in Namibia in 2017, of 123.

Burnt area
9,431ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
7 Aug 2017 – 13 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
7 Aug
2017
Heat detections
324
in a single hotspot: 64 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug13 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

7891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

29°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. Outjo where it started
    9,480 ha reached on 7 Aug
    1.3 %

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)
7 Aug 28.4 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Aug 28.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Aug 28.5 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Aug 28.6 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Aug 28.4 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Aug 28.7 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Aug 29.0 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Aug after 29.0 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Aug after 29.2 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Aug after 29.5 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Aug after 28.1 °C 5 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Aug after 25.5 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
19 Aug after 27.5 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Aug after 30.2 °C 6 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Aug after 30.3 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Aug after 31.4 °C 7 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Aug after 31.8 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
24 Aug after 31.1 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Jul 2017
After · 20 Aug 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 · 324Every 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 Outjo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 August 2017 and 13 August 2017: 7 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 9,431 hectares (94.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Outjo (9,480 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.