How long did the Chipindo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 July 2026 to 4 September 2026 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 August 2026 to 28 August 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 23,900 hectares (239.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chipindo (20,189 ha, 4.9 %); Cuvango (3,830 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

AO · Angola · 2026-07-28 → 2026-09-04

Chipindo fire, July 2026 Chipindo, Cuvango

Out · last detection 4 Sept 2026, 13:31 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2026 in Chipindo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,900 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Huíla since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 40 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Cuvango · 2024 Cuvango · 2018 Cuvango · 2026 Chipindo · 2026

Burnt area: 23,900ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 39days; 28 Jul 2026 – 4 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 28 Jul; 2026
Heat detections: 867; in a single hotspot: 128 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 301MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul4 Sept

Play back 4 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

28 Jul 3 Aug 10 Aug 16 Aug 19 Aug 23 Aug 29 Aug 4 Sept

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

48km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 8 Sept.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,429 ha in 2016, 1,266 ha in 2017, 6,106 ha in 2018, 2,992 ha in 2019, 260 ha in 2020, 1,152 ha in 2021, 4,945 ha in 2022, 6,686 ha in 2023, 8,056 ha in 2024, 4,179 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,652 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 15% of the area of London (239 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Chipindo where it started

20,189 ha reached on 28 Jul

4.9 %
Cuvango

3,830 ha reached on 6 Aug

0.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)
28 Jul	26.5 °C	16 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
29 Jul	26.1 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
30 Jul	26.9 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
31 Jul	27.1 °C	14 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
1 Aug	27.0 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
2 Aug	26.2 °C	17 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
3 Aug	26.9 °C	19 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
4 Aug	26.7 °C	22 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
5 Aug	27.3 °C	18 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
6 Aug	27.6 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
7 Aug	27.3 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
8 Aug	27.5 °C	16 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
9 Aug	27.7 °C	13 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
10 Aug	28.0 °C	10 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
11 Aug	27.8 °C	13 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
12 Aug	27.6 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
13 Aug	28.6 °C	12 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
14 Aug	28.1 °C	23 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
15 Aug	27.6 °C	23 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
16 Aug	27.2 °C	20 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
17 Aug	27.4 °C	17 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Aug	28.5 °C	13 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
19 Aug	29.0 °C	11 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
20 Aug	29.2 °C	11 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
21 Aug	29.8 °C	11 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
22 Aug	29.1 °C	13 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
23 Aug	29.5 °C	17 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
24 Aug	30.3 °C	18 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
25 Aug	30.3 °C	16 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
26 Aug	30.2 °C	17 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
27 Aug	31.0 °C	13 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
28 Aug	30.0 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
29 Aug	29.5 °C	15 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
30 Aug	30.5 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
31 Aug	30.1 °C	24 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
1 Sept	30.3 °C	23 %	23 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 38
2 Sept	31.2 °C	19 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
3 Sept	31.4 °C	17 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
4 Sept	30.5 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
5 Sept after	30.2 °C	18 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
6 Sept after	30.5 °C	18 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
7 Sept after	30.7 °C	24 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 43
8 Sept after	30.5 °C	30 %	52 km/h	2.6 mm	High 22

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Jul 2026

After · 11 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 5 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 166 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 88: 5.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak166 µg/m³

Days over the guideline42 days

PM10173 µg/m³

Optical depth1.25

WHO 15

262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567

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 · 867Every 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 Chipindo fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 July 2026 to 4 September 2026 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 August 2026 to 28 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 23,900 hectares (239.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chipindo (20,189 ha, 4.9 %); Cuvango (3,830 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 August 2026 to 28 August 2026. 867 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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