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Cuango fire, July 2016 Cuango, Caungula

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2016, 11:47 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2016 in Cuango, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,802 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 287th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 90 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area
5,802ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
18 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Jul
2016
Heat detections
169
in a single hotspot: 64 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
35km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuango where it started
    5,830 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.9 %
  2. Caungula
    3 ha
    0.0 %

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)
18 Jul 32.8 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Jul 32.5 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Jul 32.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Jul 32.3 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Jul 32.4 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jul 33.0 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Jul 32.6 °C 16 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Jul 31.7 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jul 31.4 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jul 32.3 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Jul after 32.4 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jul after 33.8 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jul after 31.7 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jul after 31.9 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Aug after 33.1 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Aug after 34.9 °C 14 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Aug after 35.4 °C 12 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Aug after 34.5 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Aug after 34.8 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Aug after 33.6 °C 12 % 50 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.

Before · 11 Jul 2016
After · 3 Aug 2016

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 · 169Every 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 Cuango fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2016 and 27 July 2016: 10 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 5,802 hectares (58.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuango (5,830 ha, 0.9 %); Caungula (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
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.