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NA · Namibia · →

Outjo fire, November 2021 Outjo

Out · last detection 25 Nov 2021, 00:49 UTC

The fire started on 19 November 2021 in Outjo, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,800 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Kunene since 2016 (of 62 with a page). Number 7 in Namibia in 2021, of 175.

Burnt area
20,800ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Nov 2021 – 25 Nov 2021
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
19 Nov
2021
Heat detections
731
in a single hotspot: 452 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
19.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Nov 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Nov25 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425

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
6%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 2 Dec.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,477 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Outjo where it started
    20,928 ha reached on 19 Nov
    2.8 %

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)
19 Nov 35.8 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Nov 36.1 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
21 Nov 33.3 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
22 Nov 32.2 °C 7 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
23 Nov 34.1 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Nov 35.1 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
25 Nov 35.3 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
26 Nov after 34.8 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
27 Nov after 36.9 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
28 Nov after 35.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Nov after 34.8 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Nov after 37.3 °C 5 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 Dec after 35.5 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Dec after 30.5 °C 30 % 36 km/h 1.7 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Nov 2021
After · 2 Dec 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 · 731Every 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 19 November 2021 and 25 November 2021: 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 20,800 hectares (208.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Outjo (20,928 ha, 2.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.