Ulundi fire, 12 September 2017 Ulundi
The fire started on 12 September 2017 in Ulundi, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,762 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 13th largest in KwaZulu-Natal since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 31 in South Africa in 2017, of 128.
- Burnt area
- 5,762ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 12 Sept 2017 – 16 Sept 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 12 Sept
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 262
- in a single hotspot: 132 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.2GW
- 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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 17 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Ulundi where it started5,788 ha reached on 11 Sept1.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Sept | 32.1 °C | 13 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 13 Sept | 33.6 °C | 2 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Sept | 22.7 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Sept | 24.6 °C | 41 % | 43 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Sept | 33.5 °C | 10 % | 72 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 17 Sept after | 11.9 °C | 74 % | 58 km/h | 3.9 mm | Very low 4 |
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 · 262Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ulundi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2017 and 16 September 2017: 5 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 5,762 hectares (57.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ulundi (5,788 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 72 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Africa (geoBoundaries). 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.
Emergency number: 10177 · 112
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 geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 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.