Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Cuvelai fire, 9 September 2017 Cuvelai

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2017, 12:22 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2017 in Cuvelai, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,160 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 94th largest in Cunene since 2016 (of 104 with a page). Number 141 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
5,160ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
9 Sept 2017 – 13 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Sept
2017
Heat detections
182
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
61
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
49km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuvelai where it started
    5,184 ha reached on 9 Sept
    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)
9 Sept 34.2 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Sept 33.9 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
11 Sept 33.8 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Sept 34.8 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Sept 34.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept after 34.0 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Sept after 34.3 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Sept after 34.7 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept after 35.1 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Sept after 34.9 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Sept after 35.1 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Sept after 34.3 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Sept after 34.8 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Sept after 35.2 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Sept after 35.5 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2017
After · 20 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 · 182Every 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 9 September 2017 and 13 September 2017: 5 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 5,160 hectares (51.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuvelai (5,184 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.