Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Cuemba fire, August 2017 Cuemba, Cacolo

Out · last detection 4 Sept 2017, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2017 in Cuemba, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,859 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 41th largest in Bié since 2016 (of 64 with a page). Number 72 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
6,859ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
28 Aug 2017 – 4 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Aug
2017
Heat detections
213
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug4 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

282930311234

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
55km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 214 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuemba where it started
    4,435 ha reached on 23 Aug
    0.3 %
  2. Cacolo
    2,461 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
28 Aug 30.8 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Aug 30.3 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Aug 30.2 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Aug 30.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Sept 32.6 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 33.0 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Sept 30.9 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Sept 30.4 °C 15 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Sept after 30.4 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Sept after 31.2 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept after 34.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept after 33.7 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Sept after 32.2 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Sept after 32.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Sept after 32.6 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept after 31.4 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept after 31.9 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Sept after 32.1 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Aug 2017
After · 11 Sept 2017

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 · 213Every 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 Cuemba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 August 2017 and 4 September 2017: 8 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 6,859 hectares (68.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuemba (4,435 ha, 0.3 %); Cacolo (2,461 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 55 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.