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Cuvelai fire, August 2017 Cuvelai

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2017, 12:28 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2017 in Cuvelai, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,037 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 101th largest in Cunene since 2016 (of 104 with a page). Number 155 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
5,037ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
25 Aug 2017 – 3 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
25 Aug
2017
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 137 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug3 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293031123

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high
49km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

8% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 383 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuvelai where it started
    5,058 ha reached on 23 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)
25 Aug 32.2 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Aug 32.9 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Aug 33.6 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Aug 32.6 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Aug 31.6 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Aug 32.2 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Aug 32.6 °C 8 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
1 Sept 32.8 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Sept 33.7 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept 31.7 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Sept after 30.4 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Sept after 32.7 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Sept after 32.3 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Sept after 34.0 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Sept after 34.5 °C 9 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
9 Sept after 34.0 °C 8 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
10 Sept after 33.7 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Sept after 33.6 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Sept after 34.6 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
13 Sept after 34.0 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2017
After · 10 Sept 2017

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 · 161Every 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 Cuvelai fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2017 and 3 September 2017: 10 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 5,037 hectares (50.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuvelai (5,058 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.