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AO · Angola · →

Calai fire, 22 September 2017 Calai

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 22 September 2017 in Calai, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,279 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 598th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 135 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
5,279ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
22 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Sept
2017
Heat detections
176
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
46km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 7 Oct.

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 406 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Calai where it started
    5,315 ha reached on 22 Sept
    0.7 %

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)
22 Sept 35.3 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
23 Sept 35.8 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Sept 36.6 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Sept 37.1 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
26 Sept 36.5 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept 34.6 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 Sept after 35.9 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Sept after 32.4 °C 17 % 51 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 65
30 Sept after 33.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Oct after 33.9 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Oct after 34.3 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Oct after 36.4 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
4 Oct after 36.8 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Oct after 32.0 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 56
6 Oct after 31.4 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 46
7 Oct after 32.7 °C 28 % 29 km/h 1.7 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Sept 2017
After · 4 Oct 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 · 176Every 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 22 September 2017 and 27 September 2017: 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 5,279 hectares (52.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Calai (5,315 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.