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Jamba fire, 10 August 2026 Jamba, Matala

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2026, 12:17 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2026 in Jamba, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,174 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Huíla since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 88 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Burnt area
15,174ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
10 Aug 2026 – 22 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
10 Aug
2026
Heat detections
387
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516171920212223

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
45km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 8 Sept.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,645 ha in 2016, 4,256 ha in 2017, 3,103 ha in 2018, 6,001 ha in 2019, 706 ha in 2020, 1,806 ha in 2022, 752 ha in 2023, 6,675 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,756 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Jamba where it started
    14,318 ha reached on 5 Aug
    1.2 %
  2. Matala
    949 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
5 Aug 29.4 °C 14 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Aug 30.4 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Aug 29.8 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Aug 29.4 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Aug 29.5 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Aug 29.8 °C 9 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Aug 29.3 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Aug 30.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Aug 30.7 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Aug 29.9 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Aug 29.1 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Aug 28.5 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Aug 29.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Aug 30.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Aug 31.3 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Aug 31.8 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Aug 32.1 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Aug 30.9 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Aug after 31.5 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Aug after 32.6 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Aug after 32.7 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Aug after 32.9 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Aug after 32.8 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Aug after 31.7 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Aug after 31.3 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Aug after 33.1 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Aug after 32.9 °C 16 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept after 32.8 °C 19 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept after 34.0 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Sept after 34.4 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept after 32.3 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Sept after 31.3 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept after 31.8 °C 15 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Sept after 33.9 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Sept after 33.9 °C 23 % 51 km/h 1.6 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2026
After · 29 Aug 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 30 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 57 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 35: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak57 µg/m³
Days over the guideline27 days
PM1059 µg/m³
Optical depth0.93
3456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 387Every 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 Jamba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 August 2026 and 22 August 2026: 13 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 15,174 hectares (151.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jamba (14,318 ha, 1.2 %); Matala (949 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.