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Witzenberg fire, November 2017 Witzenberg

Out · last detection 8 Dec 2017, 23:42 UTC

The fire started on 29 November 2017 in Witzenberg, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,038 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 13th largest in Western Cape since 2016 (of 164 with a page). Number 5 in South Africa in 2017, of 128.

Burnt area
20,038ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
29 Nov 2017 – 8 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Nov
2017
Heat detections
883
in a single hotspot: 95 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
9.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Nov8 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

293012345678

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
56km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

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
    20,063 ha reached on 29 Nov
    1.9 %

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)
29 Nov 31.1 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Nov 31.5 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Dec 26.7 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Dec 23.2 °C 33 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Dec 22.6 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Dec 28.1 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Dec 32.7 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Dec 34.1 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Dec 36.5 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Dec 36.1 °C 14 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Dec after 30.6 °C 20 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Dec after 29.5 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Dec after 27.6 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Dec after 25.4 °C 16 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Dec after 18.6 °C 44 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Dec after 26.3 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
15 Dec after 32.0 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Dec after 30.8 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Dec after 28.3 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
18 Dec after 25.8 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Nov 2017
After · 15 Dec 2017

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 · 883Every 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 29 November 2017 and 8 December 2017: 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 20,038 hectares (200.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Witzenberg (20,063 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.