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NA · Namibia · →

Outjo fire, 12 October 2017 Outjo

Out · last detection 14 Oct 2017, 12:59 UTC

The fire started on 12 October 2017 in Outjo, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,213 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 37th largest in Kunene since 2016 (of 62 with a page). Number 48 in Namibia in 2017, of 123.

Burnt area
3,213ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
12 Oct 2017 – 14 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
12 Oct
2017
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 176 MW
Danger at start
76
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Oct14 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

121314

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
51km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 24 Oct.

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
    3,223 ha reached on 12 Oct
    0.4 %

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)
12 Oct 36.0 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
13 Oct 36.2 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
14 Oct 37.4 °C 7 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
15 Oct after 37.9 °C 5 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
16 Oct after 36.9 °C 3 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
17 Oct after 38.1 °C 5 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
18 Oct after 37.0 °C 8 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 96
19 Oct after 36.0 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
20 Oct after 37.6 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 86
21 Oct after 37.5 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 91
22 Oct after 35.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
23 Oct after 33.7 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.7 mm Extreme 52
24 Oct after 31.0 °C 33 % 37 km/h 1.4 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Oct 2017
After · 21 Oct 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 · 93Every 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 12 October 2017 and 14 October 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 3,213 hectares (32.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Outjo (3,223 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 83, 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.