Calai fire, October 2024 Calai
The fire started on 21 October 2024 in Calai, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,050 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 110th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 15 in Angola in 2024, of 135.
- Burnt area
- 13,050ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 21 Oct 2024 – 1 Nov 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Oct
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 544
- in a single hotspot: 162 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 10.6GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 2 Nov.
This area had burned before
75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,540 ha in 2017, 600 ha in 2018, 3,826 ha in 2019, 4,639 ha in 2021, 3,162 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,747 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Calai where it started13,105 ha reached on 21 Oct1.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Oct | 37.5 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 22 Oct | 37.7 °C | 8 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 23 Oct | 38.8 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 24 Oct | 39.0 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 25 Oct | 39.4 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 26 Oct | 38.3 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 27 Oct | 37.3 °C | 7 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 28 Oct | 35.6 °C | 6 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 29 Oct | 34.2 °C | 7 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 30 Oct | 35.4 °C | 7 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 31 Oct | 37.2 °C | 6 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 1 Nov | 37.3 °C | 11 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 2 Nov after | 34.6 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 1.5 mm | High 30 |
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 27 October 2024 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 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 · 544Every 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 Calai fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 October 2024 and 1 November 2024: 12 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 13,050 hectares (130.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Calai (13,105 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.