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Outjo fire, 4 September 2026 Omuthiyagwiipundi, Otavi, Outjo

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2026, 13:25 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2026 in Outjo, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 207,324 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the largest fire in Kunene since 2016 (of 62 with a page). The largest in Namibia in 2026, of 153.

Burnt area
207,324ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
4 Sept 2026 – 1 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
3
constituencies
Started on
4 Sept
2026
Heat detections
4,725
in a single hotspot: 233 MW
Danger at start
64
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
50.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Oct 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept1 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

4567910111213141516171819202223242526272829301

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
54km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 9 Oct.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18,669 ha in 2017, 41,408 ha in 2020, 65,046 ha in 2021, 4,212 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 107,687 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Omuthiyagwiipundi
    177,550 ha reached on 9 Sept
    13 %
  2. Otavi
    16,758 ha reached on 15 Sept
    1.2 %
  3. Outjo where it started
    14,451 ha reached on 4 Sept
    1.9 %

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)
4 Sept 29.1 °C 5 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
5 Sept 26.1 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Sept 29.4 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Sept 33.4 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Sept 34.2 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
9 Sept 28.1 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept 32.4 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Sept 33.0 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Sept 32.8 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept 32.8 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 62
14 Sept 30.8 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Sept 33.2 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Sept 35.1 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Sept 36.7 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
18 Sept 32.2 °C 10 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
19 Sept 26.7 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Sept 26.8 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept 30.9 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept 33.1 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Sept 33.0 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Sept 35.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Sept 36.4 °C 13 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
26 Sept 35.8 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
27 Sept 35.8 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
28 Sept 37.0 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
29 Sept 37.3 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
30 Sept 35.8 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
1 Oct 31.4 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 55
2 Oct after 29.6 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Oct after 30.9 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Oct after 32.1 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Oct after 32.3 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Oct after 33.4 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
7 Oct after 35.8 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Oct after 36.4 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Oct after 35.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 2.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2026
After · 8 Oct 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 13 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 56 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak56 µg/m³
Days over the guideline12 days
PM1060 µg/m³
Optical depth0.90
234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301234
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 4,725Every 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 4 September 2026 and 1 October 2026: 28 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 207,324 hectares (2,073.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Omuthiyagwiipundi (177,550 ha, 13 %); Otavi (16,758 ha, 1.2 %); Outjo (14,451 ha, 1.9 %).
Is the Outjo fire still active?
No fire detections since 1 Oct 2026, 13:25 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, 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.