Calai fire, 5 October 2026 Calai
The fire started on 5 October 2026 in Calai, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,564 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 252th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 196 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
- Burnt area
- 8,564ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 5 Oct 2026 – 7 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 5 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 162
- in a single hotspot: 166 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.3GW
- 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 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 12 Oct.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,763 ha in 2016, 973 ha in 2017, 3,749 ha in 2018, 169 ha in 2019, 2,412 ha in 2020, 489 ha in 2021, 3,807 ha in 2022, 1,485 ha in 2023, 1,825 ha in 2024, 1,091 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,065 ha that had burned before.
- 3,543 ha Calai fire, August 2022 11,883 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,615 ha Calai fire, September 2018 17,391 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,227 ha Calai fire, September 2020 23,514 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,330 ha Calai fire, July 2024 5,364 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,194 ha Calai fire, September 2023 10,664 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,091 ha Calai fire, September 2025 8,878 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 298 ha Calai fire, September 2017 6,525 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 263 ha Calai fire, September 2022 11,325 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Calai where it started8,617 ha reached on 5 Oct1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct | 34.0 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Oct | 34.3 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 7 Oct | 35.8 °C | 8 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 Oct after | 35.0 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 9 Oct after | 33.6 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 Oct after | 34.2 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 Oct after | 34.4 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Oct after | 31.7 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 1.4 mm | High 25 |
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 7 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.4 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 · 162Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,391 haCalai12 September 2018 · 10 days · 4 km away
- 23,514 haCalai6 September 2020 · 11 days · 9 km away
- 12,542 haCalai27 September 2022 · 14 days · 27 km away
- 12,328 haCalai18 August 2026 · 20 days · 32 km away
- 21,076 haCalai4 September 2025 · 16 days · 35 km away
- 13,888 haCuangar8 September 2025 · 7 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Calai fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 October 2026 and 7 October 2026: 3 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 8,564 hectares (85.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Calai (8,617 ha, 1.1 %).
- Is the Calai fire still active?
- No fire detections since 7 Oct 2026, 13:12 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.
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.