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AO · Angola · →

Calai fire, 12 September 2018 Calai

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2018, 12:28 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2018 in Calai, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,391 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 60th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 2 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
17,391ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
12 Sept 2018 – 21 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Sept
2018
Heat detections
710
in a single hotspot: 195 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
12.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122

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
44km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,512 ha in 2016, 1,390 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,872 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Calai where it started
    17,498 ha reached on 8 Sept
    2.2 %

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)
8 Sept 31.5 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
9 Sept 27.3 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Sept 28.5 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Sept 30.8 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Sept 32.9 °C 7 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 34.0 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept 34.0 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 Sept 35.2 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Sept 36.2 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Sept 36.1 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
18 Sept 36.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Sept 36.9 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Sept 34.5 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
21 Sept 35.3 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 Sept after 35.4 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Sept after 34.7 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
24 Sept after 35.6 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Sept after 35.1 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Sept after 35.0 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 48
27 Sept after 36.0 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 54
28 Sept after 35.8 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Sept after 35.5 °C 15 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Sept after 34.0 °C 17 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
1 Oct after 32.7 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 58
2 Oct after 33.0 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2018
After · 28 Sept 2018

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 · 710Every 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 12 September 2018 and 21 September 2018: 10 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 17,391 hectares (173.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Calai (17,498 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.