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AO · Angola · →

Cambulo fire, July 2021 Cambulo, Saurimo

Out · last detection 22 Jul 2021, 12:42 UTC

The fire started on 11 July 2021 in Cambulo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,571 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 98th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 34 in Angola in 2021, of 126.

Burnt area
9,571ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
11 Jul 2021 – 21 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
11 Jul
2021
Heat detections
317
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jul 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jul21 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516171819202122

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
49km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,060 ha in 2016, 5,323 ha in 2017, 6,610 ha in 2018, 6,467 ha in 2019, 5,527 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,423 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cambulo where it started
    5,152 ha reached on 4 Jul
    0.5 %
  2. Saurimo
    4,475 ha reached on 4 Jul
    0.2 %

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)
4 Jul 33.0 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jul 32.5 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Jul 31.4 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Jul 31.2 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Jul 30.6 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Jul 32.5 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Jul 31.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Jul 31.6 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Jul 31.2 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Jul 31.9 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Jul 32.3 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Jul 32.9 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Jul 32.7 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Jul 31.8 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jul 30.7 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Jul 31.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Jul 32.2 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Jul 33.3 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Jul after 33.0 °C 17 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Jul after 31.9 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Jul after 32.7 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Jul after 32.6 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Jul after 29.8 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Jul after 28.5 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Jul after 31.7 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Jul after 32.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Jul after 33.4 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Jul after 33.2 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Aug after 32.5 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jul 2021
After · 28 Jul 2021

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 · 317Every 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 11 July 2021 and 21 July 2021: 11 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 9,571 hectares (95.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cambulo (5,152 ha, 0.5 %); Saurimo (4,475 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.