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AO · Angola · –

Andulo fire, 29 July 2026 Andulo, N'harea

Out · last detection 29 Aug 2026, 12:04 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2026 in Andulo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,900 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 54 in Angola in 2026, of 487.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

Compare with…
Burnt area
18,900ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
29 Jul 2026 – 29 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
29 Jul
2026
Heat detections
781
in a single hotspot: 186 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
242MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul29 Aug
29 Aug 2026

How it evolved, day by day

29 Jul 2026 · 130 MW · 8 30 Jul 2026 · 47 MW · 8 31 Jul 2026 · 179 MW · 29 1 Aug 2026 · 454 MW · 28 2 Aug 2026 · 124 MW · 20 3 Aug 2026 · 30 MW · 8 4 Aug 2026 · 92 MW · 18 5 Aug 2026 · 139 MW · 14 6 Aug 2026 · 174 MW · 31 7 Aug 2026 · 384 MW · 30 8 Aug 2026 · 203 MW · 39 9 Aug 2026 · 317 MW · 42 10 Aug 2026 · 189 MW · 26 11 Aug 2026 · 174 MW · 29 12 Aug 2026 · 249 MW · 21 13 Aug 2026 · 165 MW · 13 14 Aug 2026 · 637 MW · 21 15 Aug 2026 · 1,038 MW · 44 16 Aug 2026 · 597 MW · 59 17 Aug 2026 · 415 MW · 29 18 Aug 2026 · 7 MW · 3 19 Aug 2026 · 620 MW · 74 20 Aug 2026 · 406 MW · 42 21 Aug 2026 · 149 MW · 36 22 Aug 2026 · 353 MW · 35 23 Aug 2026 · 94 MW · 14 24 Aug 2026 · 86 MW · 13 25 Aug 2026 · 46 MW · 9 26 Aug 2026 · 118 MW · 19 27 Aug 2026 · 40 MW · 10 28 Aug 2026 · 16 MW · 3 29 Aug 2026 · 60 MW · 6
29 Jul 5 Aug 15 Aug 26 Aug

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

Fire front film How it spread from one satellite pass to the next (66 passes) and with what wind. Watch the film

The weather it burned in

34°high
45km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 8 Sept.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,286 ha in 2016, 1,221 ha in 2017, 2,191 ha in 2019, 1,095 ha in 2020, 2,086 ha in 2021, 2,220 ha in 2022, 3,932 ha in 2023, 811 ha in 2024, 3,394 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,020 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 12% of the area of London (189 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

  1. Andulo where it started
    18,977 ha reached on 29 Jul
    1.9 %
  2. 436 ha reached on 31 Jul
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 84 % of the area in Angola

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
29 Jul 28.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Jul 29.0 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Jul 29.7 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Aug 29.5 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Aug 29.3 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Aug 28.6 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Aug 28.5 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Aug 29.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Aug 29.7 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Aug 30.5 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Aug 30.4 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Aug 30.5 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Aug 30.6 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Aug 30.2 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Aug 30.2 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Aug 30.3 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Aug 30.3 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 47
15 Aug 30.4 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Aug 29.4 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Aug 29.6 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Aug 30.7 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Aug 30.9 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Aug 30.8 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Aug 30.1 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Aug 30.6 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Aug 31.9 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Aug 32.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Aug 31.6 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Aug 31.2 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Aug 33.5 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Aug 32.0 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Aug 31.2 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Aug after 30.5 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Aug after 29.4 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept after 31.9 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept after 32.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept after 29.9 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Sept after 29.6 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
5 Sept after 30.0 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Sept after 31.8 °C 27 % 17 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
7 Sept after 31.6 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
8 Sept after 32.1 °C 30 % 51 km/h 2.3 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jul 2026
After · 5 Sept 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 12 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 137 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 76: 5.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak137 µg/m³
Days over the guideline25 days
PM10140 µg/m³
Optical depth1.33
3 Aug8 Aug13 Aug18 Aug23 Aug
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 · 781Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 July 2026 to 29 August 2026 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 August 2026 to 24 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 18,900 hectares (189.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Andulo (18,977 ha, 1.9 %); N'harea (436 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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

History of this page · 7 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 19,298 → 18,900 ha.
  2. Last day with fire: 24 August 2026 → 29 August 2026.
  3. Start date: 5 August 2026 → 29 July 2026.
  4. Last day with fire: 29 August 2026 → 24 August 2026.
  5. Start date: 29 July 2026 → 5 August 2026.
  6. Last day with fire: 24 August 2026 → 29 August 2026.
  7. Start date: 5 August 2026 → 29 July 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 August 2026 to 24 August 2026. 781 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.