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Cacuso fire, June 2023 Cacuso

Out · last detection 13 Jul 2023, 23:30 UTC

The fire started on 29 June 2023 in Cacuso, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,874 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 45th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 72 in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Burnt area
6,874ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
29 Jun 2023 – 12 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Jun
2023
Heat detections
299
in a single hotspot: 229 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
7.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jul 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jun12 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

29123456789111213

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
54km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,829 ha in 2016, 137 ha in 2017, 1,551 ha in 2018, 2,053 ha in 2019, 69 ha in 2020, 25 ha in 2021, 1,124 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,529 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cacuso where it started
    6,917 ha reached on 29 Jun
    1.1 %

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 Jun 25.4 °C 55 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Jun 28.6 °C 46 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Jul 31.3 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Jul 32.3 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Jul 31.7 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Jul 30.4 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jul 30.8 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Jul 31.4 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
7 Jul 31.8 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Jul 30.5 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
9 Jul 31.1 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
10 Jul 31.2 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jul 30.0 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Jul 29.4 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Jul after 30.9 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Jul after 32.6 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Jul after 32.3 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jul after 32.3 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Jul after 32.5 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Jul after 32.2 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Jul after 30.3 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Jul after 27.9 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Jul after 27.7 °C 47 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Jul after 28.0 °C 51 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jun 2023
After · 19 Jul 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 · 299Every 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 Cacuso fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 June 2023 and 12 July 2023: 14 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 6,874 hectares (68.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cacuso (6,917 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.