How long did the Camacupa fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 August 2026 to 27 August 2026 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 August 2026 to 26 August 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,000 hectares (60.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Camacupa (5,869 ha, 0.6 %); Catabola (167 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.

AO · Angola · 2026-08-16 → 2026-08-27

Camacupa fire, August 2026 Camacupa, Catabola

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2026, 12:40 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Camacupa, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,000 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 48th largest in Bié since 2016 (of 64 with a page). Number 353 in Angola in 2026, of 485.

Burnt area: 6,000ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 12days; 16 Aug 2026 – 27 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 16 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 116; in a single hotspot: 79 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Aug 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1617192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

33°high

35km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 573 ha in 2022, 315 ha in 2024, 661 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

Camacupa where it started

5,869 ha reached on 16 Aug

0.6 %
Catabola

167 ha

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)
16 Aug	28.1 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
17 Aug	28.6 °C	20 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
18 Aug	29.8 °C	14 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
19 Aug	30.1 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
20 Aug	30.0 °C	15 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Aug	29.5 °C	18 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
22 Aug	30.5 °C	20 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Aug	31.5 °C	20 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
24 Aug	31.7 °C	20 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
25 Aug	31.3 °C	22 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
26 Aug	31.0 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
27 Aug	32.7 °C	18 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
28 Aug after	31.5 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
29 Aug after	30.7 °C	18 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
30 Aug after	31.4 °C	26 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
31 Aug after	31.5 °C	27 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Sept after	30.9 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
2 Sept after	32.4 °C	19 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
3 Sept after	31.2 °C	28 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
4 Sept after	30.5 °C	34 %	32 km/h	0.3 mm	High 37
5 Sept after	30.2 °C	30 %	28 km/h	0.3 mm	High 36
6 Sept after	31.2 °C	25 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Aug 2026

After · 3 Sept 2026

Before After

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 20 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 132 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 67: 4.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak132 µg/m³

Days over the guideline16 days

PM10134 µg/m³

Optical depth1.06

WHO 15

1415161718192021222324252627282930

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 · 116Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Camacupa fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 August 2026 to 27 August 2026 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 August 2026 to 26 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,000 hectares (60.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Camacupa (5,869 ha, 0.6 %); Catabola (167 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned