Cuilo fire, 13 July 2026 Cuilo
The fire started on 13 July 2026 in Cuilo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,199 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 130th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 208 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
- Burnt area
- 8,199ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 13 Jul 2026 – 14 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 7
- in a single hotspot: 9 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- 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
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,121 ha in 2016, 2,704 ha in 2017, 1,382 ha in 2018, 3,383 ha in 2019, 2,301 ha in 2020, 2,785 ha in 2021, 1,363 ha in 2022, 1,876 ha in 2023, 3,049 ha in 2024, 1,302 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,740 ha that had burned before.
- 4,772 ha Cuilo fire, June 2016 14,817 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,320 ha Cuilo fire, June 2019 10,637 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,049 ha Cuilo fire, June 2024 9,734 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,231 ha Cuilo fire, June 2020 5,614 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,302 ha Cuilo fire, July 2025 6,129 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,172 ha Cuilo fire, June 2017 5,154 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 127 ha Cuilo fire, July 2021 6,901 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Cuilo where it started8,255 ha reached on 10 Jul0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul | 32.1 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Jul | 32.1 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Jul after | 31.1 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Jul after | 29.7 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Jul after | 28.9 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Jul after | 29.8 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Jul after | 29.5 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Jul after | 28.9 °C | 29 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Jul after | 30.9 °C | 30 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Jul after | 32.8 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Jul after | 32.4 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Jul after | 31.5 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 17 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 221 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 77: 5.1 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 · 7Every 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 13 July 2026 and 14 July 2026: 2 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 8,199 hectares (82.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Cuilo (8,255 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.