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AO · Angola · →

Dala fire, July 2018 Dala, Saurimo

Out · last detection 19 Jul 2018, 12:48 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2018 in Dala, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,044 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 234th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 97 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
5,044ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
17 Jul 2018 – 19 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
17 Jul
2018
Heat detections
148
in a single hotspot: 290 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul19 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

171819

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
45km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,378 ha in 2016, 15 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Dala where it started
    4,360 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.3 %
  2. Saurimo
    713 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.0 %

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)
17 Jul 24.2 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Jul 23.4 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Jul 24.4 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Jul after 24.7 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Jul after 25.5 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Jul after 25.6 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Jul after 25.9 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jul after 24.8 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Jul after 24.0 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jul after 26.2 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Jul after 27.8 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Jul after 27.5 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Jul after 28.5 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jul 2018
After · 26 Jul 2018

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 · 148Every 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 Dala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 July 2018 and 19 July 2018: 3 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 5,044 hectares (50.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dala (4,360 ha, 0.3 %); Saurimo (713 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.4 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
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.