Burned area
satellite only11,281ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 15 Aug 2024 – 25 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
AO · Angola · –
Cuanhama fire, 15 August 2024 Cuanhama, Cuvelai
Out · last detection 25 Aug 2024, 12:53 UTC
The fire started on 15 August 2024 in Cuanhama, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,281 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Cunene since 2016 (of 79 with a page). Number 21 in Angola in 2024, of 135.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only11days
15 Aug 2024 to 25 Aug 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 25 Aug 2024, 12:53 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only15 Aug 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 15 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only411
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 379 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 15 Aug 2024 – 25 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only5,193MW
Total radiative power on 16 August 2024; hotspots that day: 62.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 16 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model64.2FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 15 Aug 2024, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model32.2°C · 9% RH
High of 32.2 °C and minimum humidity of 9% on 17 August 2024; gusts of 48 km/h on 19 August 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 15 Aug 2024 – 25 Aug 2024
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logLast day with fire: 23 August 2024 → 25 August 2024.
-
logStart date: 16 August 2024 → 15 August 2024.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 11,281 ha
- Dates
- 15 Aug 2024 – 25 Aug 2024
- Name
- Cuanhama
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/cuanhama-2024-08-3?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire cuanhama-2024-08-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-08-15 | 0 | 0 | 31.7 | 12.8 | 7 | 21.5 | 46.1 | 0 | 64.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-16 | 62 | 5,193 | 32.1 | 13.6 | 7 | 20.4 | 45 | 0 | 63 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-17 | 104 | 3,306 | 32.2 | 10.9 | 9 | 20.8 | 45.4 | 0 | 63.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-18 | 133 | 3,389 | 31.6 | 10.9 | 11 | 18.3 | 42.1 | 0 | 59.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-19 | 70 | 646 | 31.2 | 13.2 | 10 | 22.5 | 47.9 | 0 | 66 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-20 | 26 | 98 | 31.8 | 11.4 | 9 | 21.6 | 45.4 | 0 | 65 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-21 | 11 | 81 | 31.8 | 11.9 | 9 | 22.8 | 46.1 | 0 | 67.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-22 | 3 | 90 | 31.7 | 11.2 | 8 | 16.8 | 40 | 0 | 59 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-23 | 1 | 5 | 31.5 | 11.6 | 9 | 21.5 | 46.1 | 0 | 65.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-24 | 0 | 0 | 31.9 | 13.5 | 9 | 21.2 | 42.1 | 0 | 65.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-25 | 1 | 5 | 32.2 | 13.7 | 9 | 21.1 | 43.6 | 0 | 66 | extremo | 1 |
| 2024-08-26 | 0 | 0 | 32.1 | 11.2 | 9 | 19.6 | 41.8 | 0 | 64.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-08-27 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 12.4 | 7 | 17.6 | 37.4 | 0 | 61.6 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-08-28 | 0 | 0 | 33.8 | 13.7 | 5 | 17.3 | 36 | 0 | 61.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-08-29 | 0 | 0 | 34.3 | 13.6 | 6 | 10.9 | 27 | 0 | 53.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-08-30 | 0 | 0 | 33.8 | 13.5 | 8 | 24.2 | 50 | 0 | 72.3 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2024-08-31 | 0 | 0 | 33.6 | 16.7 | 12 | 26.8 | 54 | 0 | 73.9 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2024-09-01 | 0 | 0 | 31.3 | 21.6 | 16 | 29.5 | 58.3 | 0 | 71.8 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2024-09-02 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 16.8 | 11 | 24.5 | 49.3 | 0 | 64.6 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-09-03 | 0 | 0 | 30.5 | 15 | 13 | 25.7 | 51.5 | 0 | 66.6 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-09-04 | 0 | 0 | 30.7 | 13.8 | 9 | 26.2 | 52.6 | 0 | 67.7 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 11,281ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 15 Aug 2024 – 25 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 411
- in a single hotspot: 379 MW
- Danger at start
- 64
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.4GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
15 Aug25 Aug
25 Aug 2024
How it evolved, day by day
16 Aug
18 Aug
20 Aug
22 Aug
25 Aug
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
32°high
48km/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
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,135 ha in 2016, 193 ha in 2017, 4,788 ha in 2018, 419 ha in 2019, 3,737 ha in 2020, 1,531 ha in 2021, 5,151 ha in 2022, 1,991 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,201 ha that had burned before.
- 5,135 ha Cuanhama fire, September 2016 11,086 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,737 ha Cuanhama fire, September 2020 15,781 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 740 ha Cuvelai fire, August 2021 14,326 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 419 ha Cuanhama fire, June 2019 8,746 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Cuanhama where it started11,235 ha reached on 16 Aug0.5 %
-
82 ha reached on 19 Aug0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with Very dry air: 41 % of the area in Angola 60 days without rain: 84 % of the area in Angola
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug | 31.7 °C | 7 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 16 Aug | 32.1 °C | 7 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 17 Aug | 32.2 °C | 9 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 18 Aug | 31.6 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 19 Aug | 31.2 °C | 10 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 20 Aug | 31.8 °C | 9 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 21 Aug | 31.8 °C | 9 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 22 Aug | 31.7 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 23 Aug | 31.5 °C | 9 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 24 Aug | 31.9 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 25 Aug | 32.2 °C | 9 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 26 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 27 Aug after | 33.0 °C | 7 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 28 Aug after | 33.8 °C | 5 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 29 Aug after | 34.3 °C | 6 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 30 Aug after | 33.8 °C | 8 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 31 Aug after | 33.6 °C | 12 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 1 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 16 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 2 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 11 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 3 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 13 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 4 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 9 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 64.2, a minimum humidity of 7% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 20.
FWI at the start
64.2
Minimum humidity
7 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Cuanhama fire, 15 August 2024
11,281 ha
11 days
FWI 64.2
Min. humidity 7 %
Cuanhama fire, September 2019
5,276 ha
4 days
FWI 62.1
Min. humidity 7 %
43 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Cuvelai fire, September 2019
13,593 ha
28 days
FWI 65.6
Min. humidity 9 %
25 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Namacunde fire, September 2017
10,833 ha
7 days
FWI 65.3
Min. humidity 8 %
115 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Namacunde fire, September 2019
7,446 ha
11 days
FWI 64.2
Min. humidity 5 %
116 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Quipungo fire, September 2019
5,789 ha
8 days
FWI 63.1
Min. humidity 7 %
187 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 10 days
- median duration
- 6,168 ha
- median area
- 25 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 1.4 mm
- rain at the end (median; 4 of 20 had it)
It was 1.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 11 days, against 10 days.
Only 2 of its 20 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 16 of 20, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.4 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
48km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 25 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 4 of 20, with a median of 1.4 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 8 Aug 2024
After · 1 Sept 2024
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 18 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 36 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak36 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1052 µg/m³
Optical depth0.45
WHO 15
14 Aug17 Aug20 Aug23 Aug26 Aug
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 · 411Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 15,781 haCuanhama19 September 2020 · 19 days · 8 km away
- 14,326 haCuvelai13 August 2021 · 14 days · 14 km away
- 23,010 haCuvelai2 July 2019 · 44 days · 15 km away
- 12,214 haCuanhama1 September 2025 · 18 days · 16 km away
- 17,500 haCuanhama9 September 2020 · 16 days · 22 km away
- 13,593 haCuvelai1 September 2019 · 28 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cuanhama fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 August 2024 to 25 August 2024 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 August 2024 to 23 August 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,281 hectares (112.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuanhama (11,235 ha, 0.5 %); Cuvelai (82 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 20. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 6,168 ha; 25 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 20 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 16 of 20, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.4 mm.
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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 23 August 2024 → 25 August 2024.
- Start date: 16 August 2024 → 15 August 2024.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 16 August 2024 to 23 August 2024. 411 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.