Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Cuangar fire, August 2021 Cuangar

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2021, 12:22 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2021 in Cuangar, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,898 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 380th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 69 in Angola in 2021, of 126.

Burnt area
6,898ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
28 Aug 2021 – 9 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Aug
2021
Heat detections
243
in a single hotspot: 149 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

28293031123456789

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
44km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 885 ha in 2016, 953 ha in 2018, 1,551 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuangar where it started
    6,925 ha reached on 28 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)
28 Aug 28.6 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Aug 27.1 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Aug 31.8 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug 33.2 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept 33.4 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Sept 33.0 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Sept 31.9 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Sept 33.2 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Sept 34.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Sept 34.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Sept 33.8 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Sept 35.2 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Sept 34.0 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Sept after 32.4 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
11 Sept after 30.9 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
12 Sept after 30.1 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept after 32.2 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept after 34.2 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 Sept after 35.1 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept after 35.5 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Sept after 34.6 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Sept after 35.1 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Sept after 33.7 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Aug 2021
After · 16 Sept 2021

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 · 243Every 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 28 August 2021 and 9 September 2021: 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 6,898 hectares (69.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuangar (6,925 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.

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.