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Libolo (Calulo) fire, July 2016 Libolo (Calulo)

Out · last detection 20 Jul 2016, 12:18 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2016 in Libolo (Calulo), Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,091 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 77th largest in Cuanza Sul since 2016 (of 79 with a page). Number 129 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area
5,091ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
17 Jul 2016 – 22 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Jul
2016
Heat detections
148
in a single hotspot: 128 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul22 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

17181920

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
47km/h · peak gust
15%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. Libolo (Calulo) where it started
    5,125 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.9 %

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 28.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Jul 29.4 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Jul 28.4 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jul 27.6 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Jul 27.6 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jul 28.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Jul after 29.0 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jul after 28.4 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Jul after 28.0 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jul after 28.3 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Jul after 28.1 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jul after 27.8 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Jul after 29.8 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jul after 26.3 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Jul after 29.2 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Aug after 29.6 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jul 2016
After · 29 Jul 2016

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 Libolo (Calulo) fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 July 2016 and 22 July 2016: 6 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 5,091 hectares (50.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Libolo (Calulo) (5,125 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.