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Cuvelai fire, 25 August 2019 Cuvelai

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2019, 12:28 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2019 in Cuvelai, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,340 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 25th largest in Cunene since 2016 (of 104 with a page). Number 61 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
9,340ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
25 Aug 2019 – 9 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
25 Aug
2019
Heat detections
405
in a single hotspot: 89 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293031123456789

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
55km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,715 ha in 2016, 2,073 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,525 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuvelai where it started
    9,384 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
25 Aug 28.7 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Aug 30.4 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Aug 31.6 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Aug 33.0 °C 4 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Aug 33.8 °C 5 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Aug 34.7 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Aug 32.5 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Sept 32.1 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Sept 32.2 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Sept 33.6 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
4 Sept 34.3 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Sept 35.3 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept 36.1 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Sept 34.0 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
8 Sept 29.6 °C 15 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
9 Sept 28.2 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Sept after 29.8 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Sept after 31.8 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Sept after 31.7 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept after 32.7 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Sept after 34.8 °C 6 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Sept after 35.9 °C 6 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Sept after 34.7 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Sept after 34.1 °C 8 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
18 Sept after 33.7 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
19 Sept after 35.2 °C 8 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2019
After · 16 Sept 2019

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 · 405Every 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 2019 and 9 September 2019: 16 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 9,340 hectares (93.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuvelai (9,384 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.