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Cuilo fire, 20 July 2016 Cuilo

Out · last detection 30 Jul 2016, 12:30 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2016 in Cuilo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,087 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 63th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 20 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area
12,087ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
20 Jul 2016 – 29 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Jul
2016
Heat detections
309
in a single hotspot: 286 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
15.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul29 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

202324252627282930

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
44km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuilo where it started
    12,184 ha reached on 19 Jul
    1.2 %

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)
19 Jul 29.4 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Jul 29.5 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Jul 29.3 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jul 30.1 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jul 30.3 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Jul 30.9 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Jul 31.0 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jul 31.1 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jul 30.9 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Jul 30.3 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jul 32.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Jul after 32.4 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jul after 30.5 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Aug after 32.1 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Aug after 32.3 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Aug after 32.1 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Aug after 33.1 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Aug after 30.9 °C 12 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Aug after 30.2 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Aug after 31.0 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Aug after 29.5 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2016
After · 5 Aug 2016

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 · 309Every 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 Cuilo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 July 2016 and 29 July 2016: 10 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 12,087 hectares (120.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuilo (12,184 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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

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.