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Ramotshere Moiloa fire, 22 August 2023 Ramotshere Moiloa

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2023, 23:28 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2023 in Ramotshere Moiloa, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,799 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 47th largest in North West since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 48 in South Africa in 2023, of 150.

Burnt area
3,799ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
22 Aug 2023 – 24 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Aug
2023
Heat detections
168
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

22232425

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
35km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 206 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Ramotshere Moiloa where it started
    3,821 ha reached on 21 Aug
    0.5 %

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)
22 Aug 30.1 °C 5 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Aug 27.8 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Aug 28.1 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Aug after 28.6 °C 14 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
26 Aug after 22.1 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
27 Aug after 22.6 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Aug after 21.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Aug after 22.3 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Aug after 22.3 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Aug after 24.5 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept after 28.8 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Sept after 30.0 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Sept after 30.3 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2023
After · 31 Aug 2023

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 · 168Every 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 Ramotshere Moiloa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 August 2023 and 24 August 2023: 3 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 3,799 hectares (38.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ramotshere Moiloa (3,821 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
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.