Cahama fire, September 2018 Cahama
The fire started on 26 September 2018 in Cahama, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,831 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 69th largest in Cunene since 2016 (of 104 with a page). Number 73 in Angola in 2018, of 100.
- Burnt area
- 5,831ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 26 Sept 2018 – 29 Sept 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Sept
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 184
- in a single hotspot: 163 MW
- Danger at start
- 62
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,340 ha in 2016, 145 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Cahama where it started5,857 ha reached on 26 Sept0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Sept | 34.9 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 27 Sept | 36.1 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 28 Sept | 36.3 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 29 Sept | 37.4 °C | 11 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 30 Sept after | 34.6 °C | 14 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 1 Oct after | 35.6 °C | 14 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 2 Oct after | 35.5 °C | 12 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 3 Oct after | 36.6 °C | 4 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 4 Oct after | 35.8 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 5 Oct after | 36.9 °C | 7 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 6 Oct after | 35.7 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 7 Oct after | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 8 Oct after | 36.0 °C | 11 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 9 Oct after | 36.5 °C | 8 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 184Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cahama fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 September 2018 and 29 September 2018: 4 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 5,831 hectares (58.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Cahama (5,857 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.
Report an error
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.