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Tsumkwe fire, 30 August 2016 Tsumkwe

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2016, 12:02 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2016 in Tsumkwe, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,802 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 23th largest in Otjozondjupa since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 9 in Namibia in 2016, of 108.

Burnt area
9,802ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
30 Aug 2016 – 12 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
30 Aug
2016
Heat detections
319
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456789101112

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
52km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Tsumkwe where it started
    9,833 ha reached on 30 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
30 Aug 30.1 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
31 Aug 30.7 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Sept 30.6 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Sept 30.2 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Sept 29.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Sept 30.3 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Sept 32.5 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Sept 34.1 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Sept 34.8 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Sept 35.4 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
9 Sept 35.4 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Sept 35.7 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
11 Sept 34.3 °C 9 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
12 Sept 34.7 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Sept after 34.7 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept after 34.6 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
15 Sept after 35.1 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Sept after 32.4 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Sept after 28.2 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
18 Sept after 28.2 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
19 Sept after 30.8 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Sept after 32.0 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Sept after 33.6 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Sept after 34.5 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Sept after 34.4 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Sept after 35.8 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Sept after 36.1 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Sept after 35.5 °C 11 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2016
After · 19 Sept 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 · 319Every 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 Namibia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tsumkwe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2016 and 12 September 2016: 14 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 9,802 hectares (98.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tsumkwe (9,833 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very extreme.
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.

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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.