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Overstrand fire, February 2016 Overstrand

Out · last detection 29 Feb 2016, 13:14 UTC

The fire started on 28 February 2016 in Overstrand, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,575 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 137th largest in Western Cape since 2016 (of 164 with a page). Number 49 in South Africa in 2016, of 71.

Burnt area
2,575ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
28 Feb 2016 – 29 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Feb
2016
Heat detections
73
in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
380MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

29 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Feb29 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

28 Feb 2016 · 473 MW · 53 29 Feb 2016 · 286 MW · 20
28 Feb 29 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
45km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 6 Mar.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Overstrand where it started
    2,586 ha reached on 28 Feb
    1.5 %

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)
28 Feb 25.7 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
29 Feb 27.3 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
1 Mar after 23.0 °C 53 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
2 Mar after 24.9 °C 60 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
3 Mar after 26.4 °C 56 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
4 Mar after 28.8 °C 49 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
5 Mar after 25.4 °C 61 % 51 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
6 Mar after 25.9 °C 60 % 48 km/h 1.8 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Feb 2016
After · 7 Mar 2016

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 · 73Every 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 South Africa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Overstrand fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 February 2016 and 29 February 2016: 2 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 2,575 hectares (25.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Overstrand (2,586 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.3 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Africa (geoBoundaries). 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.

Emergency number: 10177 · 112

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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 10177 · 112.

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 geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 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.