Cuilo fire, 18 July 2026 Cuilo
The fire started on 18 July 2026 in Cuilo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,574 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 210th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 299 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
- Burnt area
- 6,574ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 18 Jul 2026 – 23 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 134
- in a single hotspot: 84 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 911MW
- 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
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,374 ha in 2016, 45 ha in 2017, 3,336 ha in 2019, 2,979 ha in 2020, 3,855 ha in 2021, 136 ha in 2023, 2,596 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,468 ha that had burned before.
- 3,849 ha Cuilo fire, July 2021 6,901 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,336 ha Cuilo fire, June 2019 10,637 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,964 ha Cuilo fire, June 2024 9,734 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,752 ha Cuilo fire, June 2016 14,817 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Cuilo where it started6,618 ha reached on 16 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jul | 29.7 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Jul | 28.8 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 18 Jul | 29.9 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Jul | 29.4 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Jul | 29.0 °C | 28 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Jul | 31.0 °C | 30 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Jul | 32.8 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Jul | 32.2 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Jul after | 31.4 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Jul after | 30.7 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Jul after | 30.6 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Jul after | 31.0 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 28 Jul after | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 29 Jul after | 30.4 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Jul after | 28.5 °C | 36 % | 19 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 31 Jul after | 30.1 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 1 Aug after | 30.8 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Aug after | 30.7 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
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 19 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 400 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 204: 14 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 · 134Every 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 18 July 2026 and 23 July 2026: 6 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 6,574 hectares (65.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Cuilo (6,618 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 38 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.