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Cacolo fire, 12 August 2023 Cacolo, Quirima

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2023, 12:49 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2023 in Cacolo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,532 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 184th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 123 in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Burnt area
5,532ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
12 Aug 2023 – 17 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Aug
2023
Heat detections
252
in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug17 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718

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
44km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,340 ha in 2016, 1,763 ha in 2017, 2,353 ha in 2018, 4,736 ha in 2019, 4,396 ha in 2021, 4,028 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,498 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cacolo where it started
    5,562 ha reached on 5 Aug
    0.4 %
  2. Quirima
    5 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
12 Aug 32.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Aug 31.1 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Aug 30.8 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Aug 31.8 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Aug 33.1 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Aug 32.6 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Aug after 32.8 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Aug after 33.4 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Aug after 33.1 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug after 32.8 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug after 33.4 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Aug after 34.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug after 33.5 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Aug after 32.6 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Aug after 31.6 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug after 34.2 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Aug 2023
After · 24 Aug 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 · 252Every 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 12 August 2023 and 17 August 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 5,532 hectares (55.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cacolo (5,562 ha, 0.4 %); Quirima (5 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.