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Bundas fire, 31 August 2023 Bundas

Out · last detection 6 Sept 2023, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2023 in Bundas, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,255 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 98th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 142 in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Burnt area
5,255ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
31 Aug 2023 – 5 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2023
Heat detections
202
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug5 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

31123456

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
38km/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

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,766 ha in 2017, 1,091 ha in 2018, 2,685 ha in 2019, 1,881 ha in 2021, 882 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,804 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bundas where it started
    5,253 ha reached on 28 Aug
    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)
31 Aug 29.5 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept 31.7 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept 32.3 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Sept 33.3 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 33.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Sept 32.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Sept after 33.0 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept after 33.7 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Sept after 33.8 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Sept after 33.4 °C 8 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Sept after 33.6 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Sept after 34.0 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Sept after 33.3 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept after 32.9 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Sept after 32.7 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept after 33.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2023
After · 12 Sept 2023

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 · 202Every 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 31 August 2023 and 5 September 2023: 6 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 5,255 hectares (52.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bundas (5,253 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 38 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

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.