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Libolo (Calulo) fire, July 2020 Libolo (Calulo)

Out · last detection 24 Jul 2020, 12:48 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2020 in Libolo (Calulo), Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,541 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Cuanza Sul since 2016 (of 79 with a page). Number 6 in Angola in 2020, of 123.

Burnt area
16,541ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
15 Jul 2020 – 23 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Jul
2020
Heat detections
485
in a single hotspot: 175 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
7.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul23 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
56km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,961 ha in 2016, 2,295 ha in 2017, 1,311 ha in 2018, 3,165 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,916 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Libolo (Calulo) where it started
    16,647 ha reached on 9 Jul
    2.8 %

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)
9 Jul 28.1 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Jul 26.8 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Jul 27.4 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Jul 28.1 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Jul 29.6 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Jul 28.8 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Jul 28.4 °C 20 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jul 27.9 °C 22 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Jul 27.4 °C 25 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jul 27.0 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Jul 26.2 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Jul 26.9 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Jul 27.0 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Jul 28.6 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jul 28.7 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jul after 28.7 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Jul after 28.3 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jul after 26.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jul after 27.6 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Jul after 27.2 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Jul after 26.7 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jul after 28.9 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jul after 29.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug after 29.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Aug after 28.7 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Aug after 29.9 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Aug after 27.3 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Aug after 26.2 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Aug after 26.6 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Aug after 29.0 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2020
After · 30 Jul 2020

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 · 485Every 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 15 July 2020 and 23 July 2020: 9 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 16,541 hectares (165.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Libolo (Calulo) (16,647 ha, 2.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.