How long did the Andulo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 July 2026 to 3 September 2026 (49 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 July 2026 to 28 August 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,587 hectares (135.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Andulo (13,660 ha, 1.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.

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.

AO · Angola · 2026-07-17 → 2026-09-03

Andulo fire, 17 July 2026 Andulo

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2026, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2026 in Andulo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 49 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,587 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 12th largest in Bié since 2016 (of 64 with a page). Number 100 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Andulo · 2026 Mussende · 2026 Andulo · 2022 Andulo · 2026

Burnt area: 13,587ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 49days; 17 Jul 2026 – 3 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 17 Jul; 2026
Heat detections: 877; in a single hotspot: 119 MW
Danger at start: 46; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 170MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul3 Sept

Play back 3 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

17 Jul 24 Jul 31 Jul 8 Aug 11 Aug 15 Aug 23 Aug 1 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

33°high

46km/h · peak gust

11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 7 Sept.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,863 ha in 2016, 908 ha in 2017, 1,524 ha in 2021, 686 ha in 2022, 2,152 ha in 2024, 3,697 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,216 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 8.6% of the area of London (136 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Andulo where it started

13,660 ha reached on 17 Jul

1.3 %

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)
17 Jul	27.1 °C	16 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
18 Jul	27.6 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
19 Jul	29.5 °C	17 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
20 Jul	28.8 °C	22 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
21 Jul	28.8 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
22 Jul	30.7 °C	21 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
23 Jul	31.6 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
24 Jul	30.9 °C	15 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
25 Jul	30.3 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
26 Jul	30.1 °C	16 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
27 Jul	30.3 °C	20 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
28 Jul	29.5 °C	16 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
29 Jul	29.1 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
30 Jul	29.4 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
31 Jul	30.4 °C	19 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
1 Aug	30.1 °C	18 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
2 Aug	30.0 °C	18 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
3 Aug	28.9 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
4 Aug	29.4 °C	24 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
5 Aug	29.9 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
6 Aug	30.0 °C	20 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
7 Aug	31.3 °C	14 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
8 Aug	31.0 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
9 Aug	31.2 °C	16 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
10 Aug	31.3 °C	15 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
11 Aug	30.7 °C	14 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
12 Aug	30.7 °C	14 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
13 Aug	31.1 °C	21 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
14 Aug	31.0 °C	29 %	41 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 42
15 Aug	31.1 °C	26 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
16 Aug	30.5 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
17 Aug	30.6 °C	16 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
18 Aug	31.4 °C	14 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
19 Aug	31.7 °C	12 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
20 Aug	31.5 °C	11 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
21 Aug	30.5 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
22 Aug	31.3 °C	21 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
23 Aug	32.2 °C	19 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
24 Aug	32.6 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
25 Aug	31.7 °C	21 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
26 Aug	31.4 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Aug	33.4 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
28 Aug	32.0 °C	23 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
29 Aug	31.8 °C	20 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
30 Aug	30.2 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Aug	29.9 °C	34 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
1 Sept	32.2 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
2 Sept	32.4 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
3 Sept	30.6 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Sept after	30.3 °C	35 %	35 km/h	0.6 mm	High 30
5 Sept after	30.3 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
6 Sept after	32.1 °C	26 %	20 km/h	0.1 mm	High 32
7 Sept after	32.2 °C	32 %	31 km/h	2.0 mm	Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 10 Jul 2026

After · 10 Sept 2026

Before After

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 12 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 190 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 121: 8.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak190 µg/m³

Days over the guideline54 days

PM10194 µg/m³

Optical depth1.31

WHO 15

151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456

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 · 877Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Andulo fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 July 2026 to 3 September 2026 (49 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 July 2026 to 28 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,587 hectares (135.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Andulo (13,660 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 July 2026 to 28 August 2026. 877 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.

Where it burned