Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Chitato fire, 20 July 2020 Chitato, Lucapa

Out · last detection 25 Jul 2020, 12:30 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2020 in Chitato, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,882 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 272th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 82 in Angola in 2020, of 123.

Burnt area
5,882ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
20 Jul 2020 – 25 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 Jul
2020
Heat detections
189
in a single hotspot: 317 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
8.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul25 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425

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
39km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,686 ha in 2016, 1,375 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,653 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitato where it started
    5,446 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.5 %
  2. Lucapa
    476 ha reached on 23 Jul
    0.0 %

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 Jul 31.4 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jul 32.2 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Jul 33.0 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jul 32.6 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Jul 32.3 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jul 32.4 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Jul after 32.7 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jul after 31.9 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Jul after 32.1 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Jul after 32.4 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Jul after 33.5 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Jul after 33.0 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Aug after 33.5 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Aug after 33.6 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Aug after 33.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Aug after 33.1 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2020
After · 1 Aug 2020

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 · 189Every 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 July 2020 and 25 July 2020: 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 5,882 hectares (58.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitato (5,446 ha, 0.5 %); Lucapa (476 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.

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.