Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Cuvelai fire, 29 August 2019 Cuvelai

Out · last detection 8 Sept 2019, 12:47 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2019 in Cuvelai, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,940 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 38th largest in Cunene since 2016 (of 104 with a page). Number 83 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
7,940ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
29 Aug 2019 – 8 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Aug
2019
Heat detections
318
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug8 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

29303112345678

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
56km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 784 ha in 2016, 454 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Cuvelai where it started
    7,977 ha reached on 29 Aug
    0.5 %

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)
29 Aug 33.8 °C 3 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Aug 34.0 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Aug 32.3 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Sept 32.4 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
2 Sept 32.4 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
3 Sept 33.8 °C 7 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
4 Sept 34.5 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Sept 35.3 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Sept 35.9 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Sept 34.4 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
8 Sept 30.2 °C 13 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
9 Sept after 28.6 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
10 Sept after 29.9 °C 7 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Sept after 31.7 °C 6 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Sept after 31.4 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Sept after 32.5 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Sept after 34.8 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Sept after 35.8 °C 5 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
16 Sept after 34.7 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Sept after 34.3 °C 8 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
18 Sept after 33.9 °C 9 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Aug 2019
After · 15 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 · 318Every 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 29 August 2019 and 8 September 2019: 11 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 7,940 hectares (79.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Cuvelai (7,977 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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.