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Libolo (Calulo) fire, June 2018 Libolo (Calulo), Quibala

Out · last detection 9 Jul 2018, 12:35 UTC

The fire started on 28 June 2018 in Libolo (Calulo), Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,378 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 51th largest in Cuanza Sul since 2016 (of 79 with a page). Number 54 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
6,378ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
28 Jun 2018 – 8 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Jun
2018
Heat detections
200
in a single hotspot: 124 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jun8 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

282930123456789

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
44km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,954 ha in 2016, 3,362 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,272 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Libolo (Calulo) where it started
    6,297 ha reached on 26 Jun
    1.1 %
  2. Quibala
    125 ha reached on 27 Jun
    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)
28 Jun 27.6 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Jun 26.8 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Jun 27.2 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Jul 26.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Jul 27.5 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Jul 27.2 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Jul 28.3 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Jul 27.3 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Jul 28.0 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Jul 27.8 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Jul 27.9 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Jul after 27.1 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Jul after 28.1 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Jul after 28.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Jul after 28.2 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Jul after 27.2 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Jul after 26.6 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Jul after 26.1 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Jul after 28.0 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Jul after 28.4 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Jul after 26.7 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jun 2018
After · 15 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 · 200Every 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 28 June 2018 and 8 July 2018: 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 6,378 hectares (63.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Libolo (Calulo) (6,297 ha, 1.1 %); Quibala (125 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 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.