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Tsumkwe fire, 23 September 2022 Tsumkwe

Out · last detection 29 Sept 2022, 12:02 UTC

The fire started on 23 September 2022 in Tsumkwe, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,329 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 72th largest in Otjozondjupa since 2016 (of 212 with a page). Number 44 in Namibia in 2022, of 119.

Burnt area
4,329ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
23 Sept 2022 – 28 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
23 Sept
2022
Heat detections
174
in a single hotspot: 132 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Sept28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272829

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
57km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,418 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Tsumkwe where it started
    4,360 ha reached on 23 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
23 Sept 33.3 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Sept 35.7 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Sept 35.3 °C 14 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
26 Sept 35.3 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Sept 35.6 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Sept 36.1 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Sept after 34.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Sept after 35.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Oct after 36.3 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Oct after 36.5 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Oct after 37.0 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Oct after 37.7 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Oct after 38.4 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
6 Oct after 37.5 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
7 Oct after 37.1 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
8 Oct after 35.8 °C 10 % 50 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 · 16 Sept 2022
After · 5 Oct 2022

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 · 174Every 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 23 September 2022 and 28 September 2022: 6 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 4,329 hectares (43.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tsumkwe (4,360 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, 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.