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Cambulo fire, June 2022 Cambulo, Saurimo

Out · last detection 4 Jul 2022, 23:41 UTC

The fire started on 27 June 2022 in Cambulo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,807 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 110th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 40 in Angola in 2022, of 143.

Burnt area
8,807ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
27 Jun 2022 – 4 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Jun
2022
Heat detections
214
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Jul 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jun4 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

272829301234

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
46km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,718 ha in 2016, 4,664 ha in 2017, 3,350 ha in 2018, 4,477 ha in 2019, 4,310 ha in 2020, 3,154 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,310 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cambulo where it started
    6,625 ha reached on 27 Jun
    0.7 %
  2. Saurimo
    2,239 ha reached on 28 Jun
    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)
27 Jun 30.4 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Jun 29.3 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jun 29.0 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jun 30.0 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Jul 30.8 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Jul 31.1 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Jul 31.3 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Jul 31.4 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Jul after 31.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Jul after 30.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Jul after 30.3 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Jul after 31.4 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Jul after 31.8 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Jul after 31.8 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Jul after 31.9 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Jul after 31.2 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jul after 31.3 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Jul after 31.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jun 2022
After · 11 Jul 2022

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 · 214Every 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 27 June 2022 and 4 July 2022: 8 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 8,807 hectares (88.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cambulo (6,625 ha, 0.7 %); Saurimo (2,239 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 46 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

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.