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Cuchi fire, September 2019 Cuchi

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2019, 13:06 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2019 in Cuchi, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,754 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 511th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 157 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
5,754ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
12 Sept 2019 – 22 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Sept
2019
Heat detections
325
in a single hotspot: 168 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1214151617181920212223

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
54km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 128 ha in 2017, 564 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuchi where it started
    5,800 ha reached on 11 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
12 Sept 31.9 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Sept 32.7 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Sept 34.7 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Sept 35.8 °C 6 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Sept 34.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
17 Sept 33.8 °C 8 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
18 Sept 33.5 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Sept 34.7 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
20 Sept 34.4 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept 35.5 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Sept 35.8 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Sept after 33.6 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Sept after 34.9 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Sept after 35.2 °C 7 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
26 Sept after 31.6 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Sept after 31.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Sept after 32.7 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Sept after 33.0 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Sept after 32.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Oct after 33.4 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Oct after 35.4 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2019
After · 29 Sept 2019

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 · 325Every 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 Cuchi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2019 and 22 September 2019: 11 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 5,754 hectares (57.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuchi (5,800 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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.