Cuilo fire, 11 July 2024 Cuilo
The fire started on 11 July 2024 in Cuilo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,698 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 295th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 95 in Angola in 2024, of 135.
- Burnt area
- 5,698ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 11 Jul 2024 – 13 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 3
- in a single hotspot: 10 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
Where it burned
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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,662 ha in 2016, 787 ha in 2017, 2,209 ha in 2018, 940 ha in 2020, 2,209 ha in 2021, 1,449 ha in 2022, 3,222 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,005 ha that had burned before.
- 3,222 ha Cuilo fire, July 2023 6,384 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,924 ha Cuilo fire, July 2021 5,830 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,662 ha Cuilo fire, July 2016 8,292 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,646 ha Cuilo fire, July 2018 7,072 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 95 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 started5,740 ha reached on 8 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Jul | 30.3 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Jul | 31.2 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Jul | 31.9 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Jul after | 32.9 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Jul after | 32.3 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Jul after | 31.0 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Jul after | 31.8 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Jul after | 30.5 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Jul after | 31.2 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Jul after | 31.4 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Jul after | 30.3 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Jul after | 29.8 °C | 42 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 23 Jul after | 31.3 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 11 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 144 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 80: 5.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 3Every 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 11 July 2024 and 13 July 2024: 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 5,698 hectares (57.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Cuilo (5,740 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.