How long did the Cuemba fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2026 and 2 September 2026: 18 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 8,785 hectares (87.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuemba (4,868 ha, 0.4 %); Quirima (3,971 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

AO · Angola · 2026-08-16 → 2026-09-02

Cuemba fire, 16 August 2026 Cuemba, Quirima

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2026, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Cuemba, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,785 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 22th largest in Bié since 2016 (of 64 with a page). Number 188 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Burnt area: 8,785ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 18days; 16 Aug 2026 – 2 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 16 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 228; in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 1.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 3 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug2 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

161719202122232425262728293031123

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

49km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 5 Sept.

This area had burned before

32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,513 ha in 2016, 182 ha in 2017, 116 ha in 2019, 513 ha in 2023, 744 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,819 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Cuemba where it started

4,868 ha reached on 10 Aug

0.4 %
Quirima

3,971 ha reached on 10 Aug

0.4 %

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)
10 Aug	30.5 °C	18 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
11 Aug	30.2 °C	20 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
12 Aug	29.8 °C	18 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
13 Aug	29.2 °C	29 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
14 Aug	28.9 °C	35 %	45 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 39
15 Aug	29.2 °C	31 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
16 Aug	28.4 °C	25 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
17 Aug	29.0 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
18 Aug	30.2 °C	15 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
19 Aug	30.1 °C	18 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
20 Aug	30.0 °C	19 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Aug	30.5 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Aug	31.4 °C	23 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
23 Aug	32.1 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
24 Aug	31.7 °C	23 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
25 Aug	32.0 °C	24 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
26 Aug	31.1 °C	27 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
27 Aug	33.0 °C	20 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
28 Aug	31.7 °C	24 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
29 Aug	31.1 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
30 Aug	31.6 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
31 Aug	32.3 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Sept	32.8 °C	22 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
2 Sept	33.2 °C	22 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
3 Sept after	31.0 °C	32 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Sept after	30.3 °C	40 %	43 km/h	0.3 mm	High 33
5 Sept after	27.7 °C	44 %	30 km/h	2.1 mm	Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Aug 2026

After · 9 Sept 2026

Before After

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 3 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 150 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 97: 6.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak150 µg/m³

Days over the guideline27 days

PM10153 µg/m³

Optical depth1.80

WHO 15

891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345

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 · 228Every 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

All fires in Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Cuemba fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2026 and 2 September 2026: 18 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 8,785 hectares (87.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cuemba (4,868 ha, 0.4 %); Quirima (3,971 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned