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Calandula fire, August 2025 Calandula, Massango, Cangola

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2025, 13:04 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2025 in Calandula, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,742 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 81th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 137 in Angola in 2025, of 191.

Burnt area
5,742ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
31days
19 Aug 2025 – 18 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
19 Aug
2025
Heat detections
286
in a single hotspot: 274 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
7.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425262729303112345678910111215161718

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
42km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 19 Sept.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,767 ha in 2018, 2,115 ha in 2021, 1,945 ha in 2022, 332 ha in 2023, 2,262 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,375 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Calandula where it started
    3,178 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.4 %
  2. Massango
    2,320 ha reached on 29 Aug
    0.3 %
  3. Cangola
    279 ha reached on 2 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
19 Aug 30.6 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Aug 30.6 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 28.7 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug 29.2 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Aug 30.0 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug 30.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Aug 25.6 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Aug 30.2 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Aug 31.4 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Aug 23.5 °C 64 % 29 km/h 6.5 mm Very low 3
29 Aug 30.5 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
30 Aug 30.4 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
31 Aug 26.1 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
1 Sept 28.1 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Sept 30.5 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Sept 30.4 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Sept 29.6 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Sept 28.9 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Sept 29.8 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Sept 29.7 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Sept 30.0 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Sept 28.7 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Sept 29.6 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Sept 29.7 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
12 Sept 30.4 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Sept 27.8 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.5 mm High 25
14 Sept 29.8 °C 41 % 27 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 16
15 Sept 31.7 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Sept 31.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Sept 30.2 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
18 Sept 32.0 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
19 Sept after 31.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 1.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2025
After · 25 Sept 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 3 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 196 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 86: 5.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak196 µg/m³
Days over the guideline36 days
PM10201 µg/m³
Optical depth1.73
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Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 286Every 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 Calandula fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2025 and 18 September 2025: 31 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 5,742 hectares (57.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Calandula (3,178 ha, 0.4 %); Massango (2,320 ha, 0.3 %); Cangola (279 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
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.