Cuangar fire, 1 September 2026 Cuangar
The fire started on 1 September 2026 in Cuangar, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,174 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 55th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 62 in Angola in 2026, of 485.
- Burnt area
- 18,174ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 1 Sept 2026 – 7 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 1 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 324
- in a single hotspot: 77 MW
- Danger at start
- 59
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,503 ha in 2016, 2,556 ha in 2017, 2,417 ha in 2018, 2,384 ha in 2019, 1,619 ha in 2020, 9,026 ha in 2021, 969 ha in 2022, 7,094 ha in 2023, 7,048 ha in 2024, 1,526 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,708 ha that had burned before.
- 4,417 ha Cuangar fire, August 2021 6,898 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,141 ha Cuangar fire, June 2023 10,135 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,328 ha Cuangar fire, June 2023 6,792 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 610 ha Nancova fire, August 2021 33,936 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 103 ha Cuangar fire, September 2016 14,569 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Cuangar where it started18,243 ha reached on 1 Sept1.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sept | 34.4 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 2 Sept | 34.0 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 3 Sept | 34.7 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 4 Sept | 33.2 °C | 8 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 5 Sept | 31.0 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Sept | 32.9 °C | 10 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 7 Sept | 34.6 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 Sept after | 34.0 °C | 20 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 9 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 22 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 10 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 20 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 11 Sept after | 32.7 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 12 Sept after | 34.7 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 13 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 14 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Sept after | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 16 Sept after | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Sept after | 36.4 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 30 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 61 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 324Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cuangar fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 September 2026 and 7 September 2026: 7 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 18,174 hectares (181.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Cuangar (18,243 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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
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.