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Bundas fire, August 2017 Bundas

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2017, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2017 in Bundas, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,028 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 38th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 68 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
7,028ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
30 Aug 2017 – 10 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Aug
2017
Heat detections
296
in a single hotspot: 262 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

30311234678910

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
51km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Bundas where it started
    7,025 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
30 Aug 29.4 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug 30.0 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept 31.4 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept 31.5 °C 11 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Sept 30.5 °C 15 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Sept 30.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Sept 30.8 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept 32.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 32.6 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Sept 32.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Sept 32.1 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Sept 32.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Sept after 32.7 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept after 32.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept after 33.5 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept after 33.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept after 33.3 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept after 34.1 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Sept after 33.4 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Sept after 34.7 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Sept after 33.8 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 33.0 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2017
After · 17 Sept 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 · 296Every 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 Bundas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2017 and 10 September 2017: 12 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 7,028 hectares (70.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bundas (7,025 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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

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.