Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Caungula fire, 4 August 2017 Caungula

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2017, 11:46 UTC

The fire started on 4 August 2017 in Caungula, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,120 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 174th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 66 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
7,120ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
4 Aug 2017 – 14 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
4 Aug
2017
Heat detections
273
in a single hotspot: 112 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

457891011121415

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
49km/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

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,014 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,693 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Caungula where it started
    7,169 ha reached on 4 Aug
    0.6 %

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 Aug 32.3 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Aug 28.6 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Aug 30.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Aug 31.4 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Aug 30.9 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Aug 30.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Aug 29.5 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Aug 30.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Aug 30.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Aug 31.3 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Aug 31.5 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Aug after 31.9 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Aug after 33.1 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Aug after 31.6 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Aug after 30.1 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug after 29.8 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Aug after 28.0 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
21 Aug after 30.5 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Aug after 31.0 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Aug after 30.7 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Aug after 31.7 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jul 2017
After · 21 Aug 2017

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 · 273Every 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 Caungula fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 August 2017 and 14 August 2017: 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 7,120 hectares (71.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Caungula (7,169 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.