Tsumkwe fire, September 2019 Tsumkwe
The fire started on 14 September 2019 in Tsumkwe, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,143 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 59th largest in Otjozondjupa since 2016 (of 212 with a page). Number 14 in Namibia in 2019, of 45.
- Burnt area
- 5,143ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 14 Sept 2019 – 23 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- constituencies
- Started on
- 14 Sept
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 194
- in a single hotspot: 95 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 232 ha in 2016, 572 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Tsumkwe where it started5,161 ha reached on 14 Sept0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Sept | 33.5 °C | 7 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 15 Sept | 34.2 °C | 7 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 16 Sept | 33.7 °C | 11 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 17 Sept | 33.7 °C | 8 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 18 Sept | 33.3 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 19 Sept | 33.0 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 20 Sept | 32.3 °C | 8 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 21 Sept | 32.6 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 22 Sept | 34.0 °C | 9 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 23 Sept | 31.2 °C | 9 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 24 Sept after | 33.2 °C | 8 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 25 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 14 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 26 Sept after | 26.4 °C | 19 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 27 Sept after | 26.7 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Sept after | 29.2 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 29 Sept after | 32.8 °C | 6 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 30 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 12 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 1 Oct after | 28.4 °C | 11 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 2 Oct after | 30.8 °C | 6 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 3 Oct after | 33.1 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
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.
Detections table · 194Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,069 haTsumkwe29 August 2018 · 9 days · 14 km away
- 19,762 haMashare22 September 2022 · 19 days · 15 km away
- 21,713 haMashare1 August 2026 · 18 days · 24 km away
- 14,116 haTsumkwe8 September 2022 · 8 days · 29 km away
- 43,409 haTsumkwe25 August 2026 · 14 days · 34 km away
- 20,841 haMashare6 September 2017 · 13 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tsumkwe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2019 and 23 September 2019: 10 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 5,143 hectares (51.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Tsumkwe (5,161 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, class 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.
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.