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Cuangar fire, 2 September 2023 Cuangar

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2023, 23:26 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2023 in Cuangar, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,377 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 586th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 135 in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Burnt area
5,377ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
2 Sept 2023 – 10 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
2 Sept
2023
Heat detections
270
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2345678910

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
46km/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

83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,262 ha in 2016, 1,027 ha in 2017, 1,115 ha in 2018, 2,301 ha in 2021, 554 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,487 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuangar where it started
    5,391 ha reached on 2 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
2 Sept 33.4 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Sept 34.3 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Sept 34.2 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Sept 33.9 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
6 Sept 34.1 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Sept 34.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Sept 35.0 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Sept 35.0 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Sept 35.0 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Sept after 34.0 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Sept after 28.4 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
13 Sept after 32.8 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept after 33.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Sept after 35.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept after 35.7 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Sept after 35.5 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Sept after 36.1 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Sept after 35.1 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept after 34.7 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Aug 2023
After · 17 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 · 270Every 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 2 September 2023 and 10 September 2023: 9 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 5,377 hectares (53.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuangar (5,391 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.