Caimbambo fire, September 2026 Caimbambo
The fire started on 12 September 2026 in Caimbambo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,576 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
Number 194 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
- Burnt area
- 8,576ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 28days
- 12 Sept 2026 – 9 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 12 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 223
- in a single hotspot: 65 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 10 Oct.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 758 ha in 2016, 3,761 ha in 2017, 1,608 ha in 2019, 2,174 ha in 2020, 713 ha in 2021, 1,855 ha in 2022, 3,005 ha in 2023, 1,935 ha in 2024, 6,471 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,880 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Caimbambo where it started8,636 ha reached on 12 Sept2.7 %
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 Sept | 29.0 °C | 50 % | 33 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 13 Sept | 28.4 °C | 53 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 14 Sept | 31.4 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 15 Sept | 32.2 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Sept | 32.0 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Sept | 28.2 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 18 Sept | 26.6 °C | 51 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 19 Sept | 27.5 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 20 Sept | 29.2 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 21 Sept | 29.2 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Sept | 30.8 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Sept | 33.3 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Sept | 31.5 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Sept | 34.8 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Sept | 30.6 °C | 42 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 27 Sept | 30.0 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 28 Sept | 30.6 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Sept | 31.2 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 30 Sept | 31.8 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Oct | 30.5 °C | 43 % | 23 km/h | 4.2 mm | Low 5 |
| 2 Oct | 32.2 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 3 Oct | 31.3 °C | 41 % | 33 km/h | 2.2 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 4 Oct | 29.9 °C | 50 % | 29 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 10 |
| 5 Oct | 28.9 °C | 52 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 6 Oct | 28.9 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 7 Oct | 30.5 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 8 Oct | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 47 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Oct | 32.5 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Oct after | 33.5 °C | 37 % | 33 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 19 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 23 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 223Every 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 Caimbambo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 September 2026 to 9 October 2026 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 September 2026 to 9 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,576 hectares (85.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Caimbambo (8,636 ha, 2.7 %).
- Is the Caimbambo fire still active?
- No fire detections since 10 Oct 2026, 12:17 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
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.