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Cuvango fire, July 2026 Cuvango, Jamba, Chipindo

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2026, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 27 July 2026 in Cuvango, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 41,495 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Huíla since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 26 in Angola in 2026, of 485.

Burnt area
41,495ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
43days
27 Jul 2026 – 7 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
27 Jul
2026
Heat detections
1,298
in a single hotspot: 142 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
12.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jul7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2729303113567891011121314151617192021222324252627282930311234567

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
49km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 8 Sept.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,594 ha in 2016, 10,985 ha in 2017, 10,213 ha in 2018, 3,586 ha in 2019, 3,944 ha in 2020, 2,066 ha in 2022, 8,698 ha in 2023, 14,589 ha in 2024, 10,278 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 30,785 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuvango where it started
    31,552 ha reached on 27 Jul
    3.3 %
  2. Jamba
    8,922 ha reached on 7 Aug
    0.8 %
  3. Chipindo
    1,207 ha reached on 5 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
27 Jul 26.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jul 26.7 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jul 26.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Jul 27.1 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jul 27.3 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Aug 27.3 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Aug 26.5 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Aug 27.3 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Aug 27.1 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Aug 27.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Aug 28.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Aug 27.7 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Aug 27.8 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Aug 27.9 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Aug 28.4 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Aug 28.3 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Aug 28.2 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Aug 29.2 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Aug 28.5 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Aug 27.8 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Aug 27.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Aug 27.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug 29.0 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Aug 29.5 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Aug 29.8 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Aug 30.3 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Aug 29.4 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Aug 29.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Aug 30.8 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Aug 30.8 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Aug 30.9 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Aug 31.1 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Aug 30.1 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Aug 29.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Aug 31.1 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Aug 30.7 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept 30.9 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept 31.4 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Sept 31.8 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Sept 30.5 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept 30.4 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 30.9 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Sept 31.3 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Sept after 30.9 °C 29 % 53 km/h 1.5 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jul 2026
After · 14 Sept 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 30 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 152 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 71: 4.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak152 µg/m³
Days over the guideline41 days
PM10157 µg/m³
Optical depth1.29
252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 1,298Every 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 Cuvango fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 July 2026 to 7 September 2026 (43 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 August 2026 to 31 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 41,495 hectares (415.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Cuvango (31,552 ha, 3.3 %); Jamba (8,922 ha, 0.8 %); Chipindo (1,207 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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.