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Chitato fire, 18 June 2026 Chitato

Out · last detection 30 Jun 2026, 12:28 UTC

The fire started on 18 June 2026 in Chitato, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,540 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 214th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 303 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Burnt area
6,540ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
18 Jun 2026 – 30 Jun 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
18 Jun
2026
Heat detections
117
in a single hotspot: 125 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jun 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jun30 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

1820212223242526272930

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
34km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,544 ha in 2019, 988 ha in 2022, 991 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,926 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitato where it started
    6,585 ha reached on 11 Jun
    0.6 %

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 32.0 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Jun 31.6 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Jun 33.4 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Jun 33.5 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Jun 32.5 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Jun 31.6 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Jun 32.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jun 32.4 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Jun 32.2 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jun 33.1 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Jun 31.5 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Jun 32.4 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Jun 33.3 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Jul after 33.6 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Jul after 32.9 °C 26 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Jul after 33.6 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Jul after 34.1 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Jul after 33.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Jul after 33.3 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Jul after 32.7 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Jul after 32.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Jul after 32.1 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Jul after 33.1 °C 21 % 22 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 · 11 Jun 2026
After · 7 Jul 2026

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 26 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 171 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 91: 6.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak171 µg/m³
Days over the guideline18 days
PM10176 µg/m³
Optical depth1.22
161718192021222324252627282930123
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 · 117Every 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 2026 and 30 June 2026: 13 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 6,540 hectares (65.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chitato (6,585 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.