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Tsumkwe fire, 16 September 2018 Tsumkwe

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2018, 12:52 UTC

The fire started on 16 September 2018 in Tsumkwe, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,375 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 16th largest in Otjozondjupa since 2016 (of 212 with a page). Number 7 in Namibia in 2018, of 83.

Burnt area
12,375ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
16 Sept 2018 – 26 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
16 Sept
2018
Heat detections
466
in a single hotspot: 56 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920212223242526

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
48km/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

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,073 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tsumkwe where it started
    12,427 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
16 Sept 35.3 °C 8 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept 35.7 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Sept 35.9 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Sept 35.5 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Sept 33.0 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
21 Sept 34.2 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Sept 34.7 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
23 Sept 34.8 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Sept 34.3 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Sept 35.0 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Sept 35.1 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Sept after 34.9 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 53
28 Sept after 35.0 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Sept after 34.5 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 62
30 Sept after 33.0 °C 21 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
1 Oct after 31.2 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Oct after 32.1 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Oct after 33.8 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Oct after 32.7 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Oct after 33.1 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Oct after 33.5 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Sept 2018
After · 3 Oct 2018

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 · 466Every 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 16 September 2018 and 26 September 2018: 11 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 12,375 hectares (123.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tsumkwe (12,427 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, 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.