Tsantsabane fire, October 2023 Tsantsabane, Kgatelopele
The fire started on 27 October 2023 in Tsantsabane, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,330 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 26th largest in Nothern Cape since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 37 in South Africa in 2023, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 4,330ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 27 Oct 2023 – 27 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 27 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 146
- in a single hotspot: 391 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 6.2GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 30 Oct.
This area had burned before
16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 552 ha in 2016, 142 ha in 2021.
- 89 ha Kgatelopele fire, September 2021 2,871 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 49 ha Tsantsabane fire, September 2021 2,892 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Tsantsabane fire, September 2021 2,131 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Tsantsabane where it started3,271 ha reached on 27 Oct0.2 %
-
1,076 ha reached on 27 Oct0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Oct | 34.8 °C | 8 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 28 Oct after | 28.5 °C | 12 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 29 Oct after | 23.1 °C | 14 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 30 Oct after | 19.2 °C | 24 % | 57 km/h | 3.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 30 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 146Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,777 haKgatelopele21 September 2023 · 3 days · 21 km away
- 3,414 haGa-SegonyanaOctober 2020 · 2 days · 23 km away
- 3,432 haGa-SegonyanaOctober 2023 · 2 days · 27 km away
- 28,168 haGa-Segonyana6 October 2022 · 4 days · 28 km away
- 10,564 haKgatelopele23 September 2023 · 1 day · 28 km away
- 3,267 haGa-Segonyana23 November 2017 · 2 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tsantsabane fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 October 2023 and 27 October 2023: 1 day 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 4,330 hectares (43.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tsantsabane (3,271 ha, 0.2 %); Kgatelopele (1,076 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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
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.