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Cuemba fire, 27 August 2025 Cuemba, Camacupa

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2025, 12:26 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2025 in Cuemba, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,415 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Bié since 2016 (of 64 with a page). Number 15 in Angola in 2025, of 191.

Burnt area
22,415ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
25days
27 Aug 2025 – 20 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Aug
2025
Heat detections
922
in a single hotspot: 277 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
12.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Sept 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug20 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311234567891011121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
51km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 1 Oct.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 400 ha in 2016, 3,901 ha in 2017, 1,460 ha in 2018, 2,491 ha in 2019, 3,057 ha in 2020, 4,522 ha in 2021, 2,009 ha in 2022, 3,027 ha in 2023, 4,772 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,601 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuemba where it started
    14,962 ha reached on 20 Aug
    1.1 %
  2. Camacupa
    7,590 ha reached on 21 Aug
    0.8 %

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)
20 Aug 30.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Aug 30.0 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Aug 30.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Aug 32.1 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Aug 31.7 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Aug 30.0 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 30.4 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
27 Aug 31.6 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
28 Aug 28.9 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
29 Aug 32.0 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Aug 32.3 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Aug 31.9 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Sept 31.4 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Sept 31.7 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Sept 30.6 °C 10 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Sept 30.9 °C 15 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Sept 32.7 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Sept 32.6 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 32.1 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Sept 32.2 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 30.7 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Sept 31.3 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 Sept 33.6 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Sept 31.9 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept 30.1 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
14 Sept 30.1 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Sept 32.4 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Sept 32.6 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept 31.9 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Sept 32.8 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Sept 32.8 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Sept 32.7 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Sept after 30.4 °C 35 % 32 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 17
22 Sept after 32.0 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
23 Sept after 29.8 °C 32 % 24 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 17
24 Sept after 33.5 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Sept after 31.8 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Sept after 31.3 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
27 Sept after 32.0 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
28 Sept after 32.3 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Sept after 34.6 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Sept after 31.4 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 42
1 Oct after 33.5 °C 21 % 42 km/h 1.1 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2025
After · 27 Sept 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 7 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 152 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 95: 6.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak152 µg/m³
Days over the guideline30 days
PM10156 µg/m³
Optical depth1.87
252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223
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 · 922Every 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 27 August 2025 and 20 September 2025: 25 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 22,415 hectares (224.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuemba (14,962 ha, 1.1 %); Camacupa (7,590 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.