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Cambulo fire, 10 July 2018 Cambulo, Saurimo

Out · last detection 22 Jul 2018, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 10 July 2018 in Cambulo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,148 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 248th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 62 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
6,148ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
10 Jul 2018 – 21 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Jul
2018
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jul21 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516171819202122

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
47km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,938 ha in 2016, 2,945 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,554 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cambulo where it started
    6,097 ha reached on 10 Jul
    0.6 %
  2. Saurimo
    99 ha reached on 16 Jul
    0.0 %

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)
10 Jul 31.5 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Jul 31.9 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Jul 32.7 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jul 32.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Jul 32.5 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Jul 32.8 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jul 32.3 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jul 30.7 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Jul 29.5 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Jul 30.9 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jul 31.7 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jul 32.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Jul after 32.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Jul after 32.8 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Jul after 31.0 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jul after 30.3 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Jul after 31.6 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Jul after 32.3 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Jul after 32.3 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jul after 32.2 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jul after 32.9 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jul after 32.4 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jul 2018
After · 28 Jul 2018

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 167Every 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 Cambulo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 July 2018 and 21 July 2018: 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 6,148 hectares (61.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cambulo (6,097 ha, 0.6 %); Saurimo (99 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.

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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.