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Cuangar fire, 14 September 2016 Cuangar

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2016, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2016 in Cuangar, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,569 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 88th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 9 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area
14,569ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
14 Sept 2016 – 24 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Sept
2016
Heat detections
554
in a single hotspot: 142 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
46km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuangar where it started
    14,614 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
14 Sept 36.7 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Sept 34.4 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept 34.0 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Sept 33.4 °C 6 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Sept 32.4 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
19 Sept 32.9 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
20 Sept 35.3 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
21 Sept 35.1 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
22 Sept 35.6 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Sept 36.0 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Sept 36.1 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Sept after 36.2 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
26 Sept after 35.7 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
27 Sept after 34.3 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Sept after 35.9 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Sept after 35.3 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Sept after 36.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 Oct after 37.5 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Oct after 36.8 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Oct after 35.4 °C 10 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
4 Oct after 34.2 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Oct after 35.5 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2016
After · 1 Oct 2016

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 · 554Every 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 Cuangar fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2016 and 24 September 2016: 11 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 14,569 hectares (145.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuangar (14,614 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.