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Calandula fire, July 2026 Calandula

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2026, 12:04 UTC

The fire started on 22 July 2026 in Calandula, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,350 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 103th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 433 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Burnt area
5,350ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
22 Jul 2026 – 28 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
22 Jul
2026
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 104 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
982MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jul 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jul28 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

22232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
44km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 805 ha in 2018, 853 ha in 2020, 923 ha in 2023, 225 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,403 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Calandula where it started
    5,382 ha reached on 17 Jul
    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)
17 Jul 27.4 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Jul 26.6 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Jul 27.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Jul 25.8 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Jul 25.4 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Jul 28.9 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Jul 30.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jul 28.9 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Jul 27.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Jul 28.4 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jul 28.2 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Jul 28.5 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jul after 28.0 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Jul after 26.3 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Jul after 28.0 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Aug after 26.9 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Aug after 28.5 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Aug after 26.8 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Aug after 26.8 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Aug after 28.0 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Aug after 28.1 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Aug after 28.4 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Aug after 29.0 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Aug after 27.8 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Aug after 27.8 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Aug after 28.8 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Aug after 28.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jul 2026
After · 4 Aug 2026

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 26 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 117 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 78: 5.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak117 µg/m³
Days over the guideline12 days
PM10122 µg/m³
Optical depth1.25
202122232425262728293031
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 · 98Every 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 22 July 2026 and 28 July 2026: 7 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 5,350 hectares (53.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Calandula (5,382 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.