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Prince Albert fire, February 2016 Prince Albert, Oudtshoorn

Out · last detection 5 Mar 2016, 11:40 UTC

The fire started on 25 February 2016 in Prince Albert, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,900 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Western Cape since 2016 (of 164 with a page). Number 3 in South Africa in 2016, of 71.

Burnt area
23,900ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
25 Feb 2016 – 6 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
25 Feb
2016
Heat detections
1,164
in a single hotspot: 301 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Average daily power
2.0GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

5 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Feb6 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

25 Feb 2016 · 72 MW · 13 26 Feb 2016 · 222 MW · 50 27 Feb 2016 · 383 MW · 34 28 Feb 2016 · 961 MW · 58 29 Feb 2016 · 4,188 MW · 224 1 Mar 2016 · 9,777 MW · 358 2 Mar 2016 · 2,989 MW · 304 3 Mar 2016 · 555 MW · 73 4 Mar 2016 · 723 MW · 41 5 Mar 2016 · 140 MW · 9
25 Feb 27 Feb 29 Feb 1 Mar 2 Mar 4 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
68km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 7 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. Prince Albert where it started
    18,594 ha reached on 25 Feb
    2.3 %
  2. Oudtshoorn
    5,422 ha reached on 26 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)
25 Feb 26.3 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
26 Feb 23.2 °C 23 % 68 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
27 Feb 22.1 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Feb 27.8 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Feb 34.0 °C 3 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Mar 27.6 °C 15 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Mar 27.0 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Mar 28.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Mar 31.6 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Mar 31.5 °C 20 % 62 km/h 1.1 mm High 33
6 Mar 28.4 °C 29 % 54 km/h 4.0 mm Low 6
7 Mar after 15.9 °C 59 % 34 km/h 1.0 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Feb 2016
After · 13 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 · 1,164Every 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 Prince Albert fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 February 2016 and 6 March 2016: 11 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 23,900 hectares (239.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Prince Albert (18,594 ha, 2.3 %); Oudtshoorn (5,422 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 68 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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.