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Libolo (Calulo) fire, August 2016 Libolo (Calulo)

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2016, 13:14 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2016 in Libolo (Calulo), Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,796 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 42th largest in Cuanza Sul since 2016 (of 79 with a page). Number 64 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area
6,796ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
23 Aug 2016 – 2 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
23 Aug
2016
Heat detections
214
in a single hotspot: 194 MW
Danger at start
21
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug2 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728303123

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
40km/h · peak gust
48%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
    6,841 ha reached on 21 Aug
    1.2 %

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)
23 Aug 26.6 °C 55 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Aug 25.1 °C 57 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Aug 25.7 °C 54 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Aug 27.3 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Aug 26.5 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 21
28 Aug 27.4 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
29 Aug 27.7 °C 48 % 36 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 16
30 Aug 27.1 °C 53 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
31 Aug 26.4 °C 49 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
1 Sept 24.7 °C 54 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Sept 27.0 °C 54 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Sept after 27.3 °C 50 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
4 Sept after 26.7 °C 52 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Sept after 26.3 °C 53 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
6 Sept after 24.8 °C 58 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Sept after 24.2 °C 63 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
8 Sept after 26.9 °C 54 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
9 Sept after 27.8 °C 54 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Sept after 26.5 °C 54 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Sept after 25.1 °C 55 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
12 Sept after 27.6 °C 53 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Aug 2016
After · 9 Sept 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 · 214Every 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 23 August 2016 and 2 September 2016: 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 6,796 hectares (68.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Libolo (Calulo) (6,841 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 48 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class 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.