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AO · Angola · →

Chitato fire, June 2018 Chitato

Out · last detection 23 Jun 2018, 12:36 UTC

The fire started on 18 June 2018 in Chitato, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 369th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 90 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
5,225ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
18 Jun 2018 – 22 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
18 Jun
2018
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 230 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
9.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jun 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jun22 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

1820212223

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
37km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 288 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitato where it started
    5,259 ha reached on 18 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)
18 Jun 32.2 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Jun 32.0 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Jun 31.4 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jun 30.2 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Jun 29.9 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Jun after 30.7 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Jun after 30.6 °C 33 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Jun after 32.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jun after 32.8 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jun after 32.5 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jun after 31.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Jun after 31.7 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jun after 32.6 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Jul after 31.7 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Jul after 32.7 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jun 2018
After · 29 Jun 2018

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 · 127Every 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 18 June 2018 and 22 June 2018: 5 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 5,225 hectares (52.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chitato (5,259 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.