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Cuangar fire, 16 August 2026 Cuangar

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2026, 11:55 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Cuangar, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,653 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 75th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 84 in Angola in 2026, of 485.

Burnt area
15,653ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
25days
16 Aug 2026 – 9 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
16 Aug
2026
Heat detections
330
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

161719202122252627282930311234579

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
55km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,521 ha in 2016, 5,052 ha in 2017, 2,124 ha in 2018, 4,051 ha in 2019, 3,166 ha in 2020, 3,939 ha in 2021, 3,822 ha in 2022, 3,905 ha in 2023, 250 ha in 2024, 5,345 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,259 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuangar where it started
    15,753 ha reached on 16 Aug
    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)
16 Aug 27.7 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Aug 28.9 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Aug 30.6 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Aug 32.0 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Aug 32.3 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
21 Aug 31.3 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
22 Aug 31.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Aug 32.5 °C 15 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
24 Aug 33.0 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
25 Aug 32.3 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Aug 32.7 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
27 Aug 32.8 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 Aug 30.9 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
29 Aug 30.6 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
30 Aug 32.8 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
31 Aug 34.4 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Sept 34.6 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
2 Sept 34.1 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Sept 35.1 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Sept 32.9 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Sept 31.2 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Sept 33.1 °C 10 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Sept 35.1 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Sept 34.1 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Sept 31.5 °C 23 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
10 Sept after 31.1 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Sept after 32.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Sept after 34.4 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Sept after 35.8 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Sept after 33.5 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Sept after 35.9 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Sept after 36.9 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Sept after 36.7 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Sept after 35.1 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
19 Sept after 30.5 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2026
After · 16 Sept 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 29 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak78 µg/m³
Days over the guideline22 days
PM1080 µg/m³
Optical depth0.75
141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 330Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 August 2026 to 9 September 2026 (25 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 August 2026 to 5 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 15,653 hectares (156.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuangar (15,753 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 55 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.