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AO · Angola · →

Calai fire, 30 August 2017 Calai

Out · last detection 4 Sept 2017, 12:09 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2017 in Calai, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,144 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 226th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 40 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
9,144ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
30 Aug 2017 – 3 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Aug
2017
Heat detections
342
in a single hotspot: 202 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
10.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug3 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

30311234

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
48km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,073 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Calai where it started
    9,189 ha reached on 30 Aug
    1.2 %

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)
30 Aug 33.3 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Aug 32.7 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Sept 33.8 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
2 Sept 34.0 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Sept 32.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Sept after 30.5 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Sept after 32.5 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Sept after 33.5 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Sept after 34.2 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Sept after 34.2 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
9 Sept after 34.2 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Sept after 34.5 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
11 Sept after 34.2 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Sept after 34.2 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept after 34.5 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Sept after 35.2 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
15 Sept after 34.7 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
16 Sept after 35.8 °C 7 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2017
After · 10 Sept 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 · 342Every 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 Calai fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2017 and 3 September 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 9,144 hectares (91.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Calai (9,189 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.