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Thaba Chweu fire, July 2016 Thaba Chweu, Greater Tubatse/Fetakgomo

Out · last detection 23 Jul 2016, 22:30 UTC

The fire started on 21 July 2016 in Thaba Chweu, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,913 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 94th largest in Mpumalanga since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 40 in South Africa in 2016, of 71.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,913ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
21 Jul 2016 – 23 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
21 Jul
2016
Heat detections
79
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
360MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jul23 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

212223

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

The weather it burned in

25°high
36km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.3 mm on 26 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Thaba Chweu where it started
    2,111 ha reached on 20 Jul
    0.4 %
  2. Greater Tubatse/Fetakgomo
    815 ha reached on 22 Jul
    0.1 %

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)
21 Jul 24.7 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Jul 24.6 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Jul 24.4 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Jul after 18.0 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Jul after 16.8 °C 46 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm High 29
26 Jul after 16.4 °C 64 % 53 km/h 9.3 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jul 2016
After · 30 Jul 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 · 79Every 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 Thaba Chweu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 July 2016 and 23 July 2016: 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 2,913 hectares (29.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Thaba Chweu (2,111 ha, 0.4 %); Greater Tubatse/Fetakgomo (815 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % 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 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.