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Cuangar fire, August 2023 Cuangar, Calai

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2023, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2023 in Cuangar, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,610 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 541th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 121 in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Burnt area
5,610ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
12 Aug 2023 – 25 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Aug
2023
Heat detections
208
in a single hotspot: 215 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

121314151617181920212223242526

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
39km/h · peak gust
10%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: 1,821 ha in 2018, 54 ha in 2019, 1,416 ha in 2020, 464 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,758 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuangar where it started
    5,204 ha reached on 6 Aug
    0.3 %
  2. Calai
    435 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
12 Aug 29.0 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Aug 29.7 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Aug 30.1 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Aug 31.1 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Aug 31.1 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Aug 31.6 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Aug 32.7 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Aug 32.6 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Aug 33.2 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Aug 34.2 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Aug 34.2 °C 11 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Aug 34.2 °C 10 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Aug 34.1 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Aug 34.7 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Aug after 33.2 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
27 Aug after 29.4 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 Aug after 28.4 °C 26 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Aug after 28.2 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Aug after 27.7 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Aug after 29.7 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept after 32.0 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept after 33.1 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Sept after 34.1 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Sept after 34.1 °C 10 % 40 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 · 5 Aug 2023
After · 1 Sept 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 · 208Every 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 12 August 2023 and 25 August 2023: 14 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 5,610 hectares (56.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuangar (5,204 ha, 0.3 %); Calai (435 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.