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AO · Angola · →

Chitato fire, 20 June 2017 Chitato

Out · last detection 25 Jun 2017, 12:42 UTC

The fire started on 20 June 2017 in Chitato, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,304 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 354th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 132 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
5,304ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
20 Jun 2017 – 25 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Jun
2017
Heat detections
172
in a single hotspot: 349 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
17.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jun25 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

20232425

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
40km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,257 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitato where it started
    5,338 ha reached on 20 Jun
    0.4 %

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)
20 Jun 33.0 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Jun 32.1 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Jun 33.0 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Jun 31.9 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Jun 32.9 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Jun 32.8 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Jun after 33.3 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jun after 33.7 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Jun after 32.9 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Jun after 31.9 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jun after 33.3 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Jul after 33.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Jul after 32.8 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jul after 33.2 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Jul after 32.8 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jul after 31.7 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jun 2017
After · 2 Jul 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 · 172Every 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 Chitato fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 June 2017 and 25 June 2017: 6 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 5,304 hectares (53.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chitato (5,338 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.