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Witzenberg fire, 7 January 2016 Witzenberg, Bergrivier, Cederberg

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2016, 23:43 UTC

The fire started on 7 January 2016 in Witzenberg, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,896 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Western Cape since 2016 (of 164 with a page). Number 4 in South Africa in 2016, of 71.

Burnt area
22,896ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
7 Jan 2016 – 20 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
7 Jan
2016
Heat detections
917
in a single hotspot: 184 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
11.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jan20 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

7891011121314151617181920

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
67km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.8 mm on 21 Jan.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Witzenberg where it started
    15,888 ha reached on 7 Jan
    1.5 %
  2. Bergrivier
    5,798 ha reached on 11 Jan
    1.3 %
  3. Cederberg
    1,295 ha reached on 12 Jan
    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)
7 Jan 23.6 °C 33 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Jan 30.6 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Jan 32.8 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Jan 33.9 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
11 Jan 33.8 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Jan 32.1 °C 26 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Jan 32.9 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Jan 31.0 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 40
15 Jan 31.4 °C 22 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jan 34.3 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Jan 34.2 °C 24 % 38 km/h 3.2 mm Moderate 15
18 Jan 32.5 °C 30 % 40 km/h 6.6 mm Low 5
19 Jan 33.7 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 Jan 31.6 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Jan after 31.4 °C 35 % 35 km/h 5.8 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Dec 2015
After · 27 Jan 2016

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 · 917Every 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 South Africa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Witzenberg fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 January 2016 and 20 January 2016: 14 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 22,896 hectares (229.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Witzenberg (15,888 ha, 1.5 %); Bergrivier (5,798 ha, 1.3 %); Cederberg (1,295 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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
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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 10177 · 112.

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.