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Tsumkwe fire, 17 August 2023 Tsumkwe

Out · last detection 28 Aug 2023, 12:59 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2023 in Tsumkwe, Namibia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,475 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Otjozondjupa since 2016 (of 212 with a page). Number 2 in Namibia in 2023, of 111.

Burnt area
27,475ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
17 Aug 2023 – 28 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
constituencies
Started on
17 Aug
2023
Heat detections
936
in a single hotspot: 235 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
11.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug28 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
48km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 109 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Tsumkwe where it started
    27,694 ha reached on 16 Aug
    1.0 %

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 Aug 31.3 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Aug 31.2 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Aug 31.5 °C 13 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Aug 32.0 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Aug 33.2 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Aug 33.8 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Aug 33.6 °C 8 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Aug 32.0 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Aug 32.4 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Aug 34.2 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Aug 26.0 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
27 Aug 21.4 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 56
28 Aug 27.6 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Aug after 26.2 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug after 27.2 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Aug after 29.5 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept after 31.8 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Sept after 32.5 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Sept after 33.5 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Sept after 33.5 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Sept after 33.8 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Sept after 31.6 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
7 Sept after 33.4 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2023
After · 4 Sept 2023

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 · 936Every 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 17 August 2023 and 28 August 2023: 12 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 27,475 hectares (274.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tsumkwe (27,694 ha, 1.0 %).
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 65, 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.

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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.