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Outjo fire, 6 September 2021 Outjo, Otavi, Omuthiyagwiipundi

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2021, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2021 in Outjo, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 63,083 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Kunene since 2016 (of 62 with a page). The largest in Namibia in 2021, of 175.

Burnt area
63,083ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
6 Sept 2021 – 19 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
3
constituencies
Started on
6 Sept
2021
Heat detections
2,678
in a single hotspot: 208 MW
Danger at start
61
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
39.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

678910111213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
53km/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

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,561 ha in 2017, 590 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Outjo where it started
    42,740 ha reached on 6 Sept
    5.7 %
  2. Otavi
    19,077 ha reached on 14 Sept
    1.3 %
  3. Omuthiyagwiipundi
    1,469 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
6 Sept 33.9 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
7 Sept 32.6 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Sept 32.1 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept 33.2 °C 17 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
10 Sept 33.0 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
11 Sept 31.1 °C 18 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 Sept 31.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Sept 32.2 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Sept 33.6 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept 34.1 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Sept 35.0 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Sept 33.6 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Sept 33.7 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Sept 33.3 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Sept after 34.3 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Sept after 35.1 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept after 35.2 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Sept after 36.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Sept after 35.9 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Sept after 35.8 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
26 Sept after 35.9 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
27 Sept after 34.7 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Sept after 35.4 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
29 Sept after 34.4 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2021
After · 26 Sept 2021

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 · 2,678Every 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 6 September 2021 and 19 September 2021: 14 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 63,083 hectares (630.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Outjo (42,740 ha, 5.7 %); Otavi (19,077 ha, 1.3 %); Omuthiyagwiipundi (1,469 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.