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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 19,298 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Bié since 2016 (of 64 with a page). Number 53 in Angola in 2026, of 485.

Burnt area
19,298ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
29 Jul 2026 – 29 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
29 Jul
2026
Heat detections
757
in a single hotspot: 186 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul29 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

293031123567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829

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
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

62% 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.

What happened to each town

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

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

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 guideline37 days
PM10140 µg/m³
Optical depth1.33
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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 · 757Every 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 19,298 hectares (193.0 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 47, 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.