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Cuangar fire, August 2017 Cuangar

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2017, 12:15 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2017 in Cuangar, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,270 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 349th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 61 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
7,270ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
30 Aug 2017 – 8 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Aug
2017
Heat detections
272
in a single hotspot: 70 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug8 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456789

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
50km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 947 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuangar where it started
    7,297 ha reached on 30 Aug
    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)
30 Aug 33.7 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Aug 33.6 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
1 Sept 34.4 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
2 Sept 35.1 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
3 Sept 33.5 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
4 Sept 31.1 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Sept 33.5 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Sept 33.8 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Sept 35.0 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Sept 35.3 °C 9 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
9 Sept after 34.9 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
10 Sept after 34.9 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
11 Sept after 35.0 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
12 Sept after 35.3 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
13 Sept after 34.9 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Sept after 35.7 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Sept after 36.0 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
16 Sept after 36.6 °C 6 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Sept after 36.6 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Sept after 37.0 °C 8 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2017
After · 15 Sept 2017

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 · 272Every 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 30 August 2017 and 8 September 2017: 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 7,270 hectares (72.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuangar (7,297 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.