Sibbinda fire, August 2026 Sibbinda, Linyanti
The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Sibbinda, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,037 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 12th largest in Zambezi since 2016 (of 107 with a page). Number 41 in Namibia in 2026, of 155.
- Burnt area
- 6,037ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 16 Aug 2026 – 22 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- constituencies
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 120
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 859MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,184 ha in 2016, 3,006 ha in 2017, 2,100 ha in 2018, 4,687 ha in 2020, 64 ha in 2021, 441 ha in 2022, 1,955 ha in 2024, 1,692 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,969 ha that had burned before.
- 4,687 ha Sibbinda fire, July 2020 7,499 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,396 ha Sibbinda fire, May 2016 2,759 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,345 ha Sibbinda fire, July 2017 2,302 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,329 ha Linyanti fire, July 2017 2,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 80 ha Sibbinda fire, August 2018 2,228 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 64 ha Sibbinda fire, July 2021 2,350 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 28 ha Chobe fire, August 2017 6,398 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Sibbinda where it started5,507 ha reached on 16 Aug3.3 %
-
136 ha reached on 20 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | 25.6 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Aug | 27.3 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Aug | 29.9 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Aug | 30.5 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Aug | 30.8 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Aug | 30.3 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Aug | 30.3 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 23 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 26 Aug after | 31.3 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Aug after | 30.8 °C | 15 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 20 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 29 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 30 Aug after | 31.2 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 31 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Sept after | 33.3 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 18 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 120Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sibbinda fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2026 and 22 August 2026: 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 6,037 hectares (60.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sibbinda (5,507 ha, 3.3 %); Linyanti (136 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
- 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.
Report an error
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.