Cuilo fire, 14 July 2023 Cuilo
The fire started on 14 July 2023 in Cuilo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,384 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 226th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 90 in Angola in 2023, of 158.
- Burnt area
- 6,384ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 14 Jul 2023 – 16 Jul 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 14 Jul
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 169
- in a single hotspot: 334 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 11.6GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,592 ha in 2016, 825 ha in 2017, 2,130 ha in 2018, 1,310 ha in 2020, 2,602 ha in 2021, 1,997 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,713 ha that had burned before.
- 2,527 ha Cuilo fire, July 2021 5,830 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,794 ha Cuilo fire, July 2018 7,072 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,592 ha Cuilo fire, July 2016 8,292 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 73 ha Cuilo fire, July 2022 12,857 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Cuilo where it started6,430 ha reached on 12 Jul0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jul | 31.9 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Jul | 32.5 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Jul | 32.9 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Jul after | 32.1 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Jul after | 32.7 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 19 Jul after | 32.4 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Jul after | 32.4 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Jul after | 31.8 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Jul after | 31.6 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Jul after | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Jul after | 32.4 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Jul after | 31.6 °C | 25 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 169Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Cuilo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 July 2023 and 16 July 2023: 3 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 6,384 hectares (63.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Cuilo (6,430 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 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.
Report an error
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.