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Cacolo fire, 14 August 2017 Cacolo

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2017, 12:29 UTC

The fire started on 14 August 2017 in Cacolo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,196 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 217th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 139 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
5,196ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
14 Aug 2017 – 18 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Aug
2017
Heat detections
152
in a single hotspot: 191 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug18 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
48km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Cacolo where it started
    5,224 ha reached on 14 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
14 Aug 29.9 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Aug 29.7 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Aug 31.1 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Aug 31.6 °C 13 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug 29.4 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug after 30.9 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Aug after 29.9 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Aug after 30.0 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Aug after 29.9 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Aug after 31.2 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Aug after 32.2 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Aug after 31.3 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug after 32.4 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Aug after 31.4 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Aug after 31.5 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Aug 2017
After · 25 Aug 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 · 152Every 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 Cacolo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 August 2017 and 18 August 2017: 5 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 5,196 hectares (52.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cacolo (5,224 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.