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Cuangar fire, 31 August 2026 Cuangar

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2026, 13:23 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2026 in Cuangar, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,887 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 66th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 74 in Angola in 2026, of 485.

Burnt area
16,887ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
31 Aug 2026 – 15 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2026
Heat detections
305
in a single hotspot: 124 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

31123456781012131415

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
53km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,262 ha in 2016, 529 ha in 2017, 1,893 ha in 2018, 1,007 ha in 2019, 3,147 ha in 2020, 2,279 ha in 2021, 1,406 ha in 2022, 3,128 ha in 2023, 1,535 ha in 2024, 2,042 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,220 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuangar where it started
    16,990 ha reached on 31 Aug
    0.9 %

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)
31 Aug 34.7 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Sept 34.9 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Sept 34.6 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
3 Sept 34.9 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Sept 32.4 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Sept 30.3 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Sept 32.9 °C 8 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Sept 35.5 °C 4 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
8 Sept 34.4 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Sept 31.4 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Sept 31.7 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
11 Sept 33.1 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Sept 34.8 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Sept 35.5 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Sept 33.4 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Sept 35.7 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept after 37.1 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Sept after 36.8 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Sept after 35.1 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
19 Sept after 30.1 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Sept after 31.6 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Sept after 32.7 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Sept after 32.7 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Sept after 33.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Sept after 36.0 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Sept after 36.8 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2026
After · 22 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 8 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 68 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak68 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM1069 µg/m³
Optical depth0.91
293031123456789101112131415161718
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 · 305Every 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 31 August 2026 to 15 September 2026 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 August 2026 to 8 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 16,887 hectares (168.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuangar (16,990 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.