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Andulo fire, 3 July 2026 Andulo, N'harea, Luquembo

Out · last detection 10 Jul 2026, 12:40 UTC

The fire started on 3 July 2026 in Andulo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,828 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 50th largest in Bié since 2016 (of 64 with a page). Number 369 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Burnt area
5,828ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
3 Jul 2026 – 12 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
3 Jul
2026
Heat detections
118
in a single hotspot: 73 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Jul 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jul12 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

45678910

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
41km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,233 ha in 2017, 29 ha in 2019, 2,009 ha in 2021, 1,080 ha in 2022, 420 ha in 2023, 1,888 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,508 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Andulo where it started
    4,897 ha reached on 4 Jul
    0.5 %
  2. N'harea
    940 ha reached on 1 Jul
    0.1 %
  3. Luquembo
    16 ha reached on 4 Jul
    0.0 %

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)
3 Jul 31.0 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Jul 31.2 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Jul 30.7 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Jul 30.5 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jul 29.9 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jul 29.1 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Jul 29.6 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jul 30.6 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Jul 30.3 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Jul 30.9 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Jul after 31.1 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Jul after 31.6 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Jul after 31.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jul after 30.0 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Jul after 28.4 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jul after 28.7 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Jul after 30.5 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Jul after 29.6 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Jul after 29.7 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Jul after 31.8 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jun 2026
After · 19 Jul 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 8 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 115 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak115 µg/m³
Days over the guideline15 days
PM10116 µg/m³
Optical depth0.55
123456789101112131415
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 118Every 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 Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Andulo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 July 2026 and 12 July 2026: 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 5,828 hectares (58.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Andulo (4,897 ha, 0.5 %); N'harea (940 ha, 0.1 %); Luquembo (16 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Angola (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.

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 geoBoundaries ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.