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Setsoto fire, October 2020 Setsoto

Out · last detection 21 Oct 2020, 11:34 UTC

The fire started on 15 October 2020 in Setsoto, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,810 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 19th largest in Free State since 2016 (of 91 with a page). Number 24 in South Africa in 2020, of 95.

Burnt area
3,810ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
15 Oct 2020 – 21 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Oct
2020
Heat detections
121
in a single hotspot: 234 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Oct21 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

151617181921

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
57km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 26 Oct.

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 576 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Setsoto where it started
    3,827 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.7 %

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)
15 Oct 30.8 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Oct 32.7 °C 5 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Oct 32.6 °C 6 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Oct 33.0 °C 7 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Oct 33.0 °C 9 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Oct 31.7 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Oct 26.6 °C 32 % 47 km/h 7.0 mm Low 7
22 Oct after 30.4 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Oct after 31.9 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Oct after 32.5 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
25 Oct after 32.8 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm High 33
26 Oct after 29.4 °C 25 % 42 km/h 2.5 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Oct 2020
After · 28 Oct 2020

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 · 121Every 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 Setsoto fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 October 2020 and 21 October 2020: 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 3,810 hectares (38.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Setsoto (3,827 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.