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Chitato fire, July 2023 Chitato

Out · last detection 21 Jul 2023, 11:35 UTC

The fire started on 11 July 2023 in Chitato, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,471 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 45th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 13 in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Burnt area
13,471ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
11 Jul 2023 – 20 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 Jul
2023
Heat detections
387
in a single hotspot: 215 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Jul 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jul20 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516182021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
45km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,173 ha in 2016, 2,385 ha in 2017, 6,564 ha in 2018, 5,167 ha in 2019, 5,779 ha in 2020, 3,880 ha in 2021, 1,351 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,268 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitato where it started
    13,550 ha reached on 5 Jul
    1.1 %

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)
5 Jul 33.6 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Jul 33.5 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Jul 33.4 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Jul 33.2 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Jul 32.6 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Jul 33.9 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jul 32.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Jul 32.3 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Jul 33.9 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jul 34.1 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Jul 34.5 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Jul 35.1 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jul 34.4 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jul 35.2 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jul 34.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jul 33.6 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Jul after 32.6 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Jul after 33.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Jul after 35.1 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Jul after 34.3 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Jul after 34.5 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jul after 33.1 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Jul after 33.6 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Jul after 34.1 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul after 34.6 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jul after 34.7 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul after 35.0 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Aug after 35.0 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Aug after 34.3 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Aug after 32.8 °C 26 % 27 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 · 4 Jul 2023
After · 27 Jul 2023

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 · 387Every 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 11 July 2023 and 20 July 2023: 10 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 13,471 hectares (134.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chitato (13,550 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 45 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.

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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.