How long did the Luchazes fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2017 and 22 September 2017: 23 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 10,591 hectares (105.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luchazes (10,690 ha, 0.3 %); Bundas (0 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.

AO · Angola · 2017-08-31 → 2017-09-22

Luchazes fire, 31 August 2017 Luchazes, Bundas

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2017, 12:53 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2017 in Luchazes, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,591 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 31 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area: 10,591ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 23days; 31 Aug 2017 – 22 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 31 Aug; 2017
Heat detections: 408; in a single hotspot: 212 MW
Danger at start: 54; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 7.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Sept 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

311234567891011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

49km/h · peak gust

11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 5 Oct.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,556 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

Luchazes where it started

10,690 ha reached on 28 Aug

0.3 %
Bundas

0 ha reached on 11 Sept

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 Aug	30.9 °C	13 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
29 Aug	30.7 °C	15 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
30 Aug	31.0 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
31 Aug	30.9 °C	12 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
1 Sept	32.5 °C	12 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
2 Sept	32.4 °C	13 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
3 Sept	31.7 °C	14 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
4 Sept	31.1 °C	16 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
5 Sept	32.0 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
6 Sept	33.2 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
7 Sept	32.9 °C	13 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
8 Sept	33.0 °C	11 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
9 Sept	32.8 °C	14 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
10 Sept	33.1 °C	13 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
11 Sept	33.1 °C	13 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
12 Sept	33.3 °C	15 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
13 Sept	34.3 °C	17 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
14 Sept	34.4 °C	14 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
15 Sept	34.1 °C	14 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
16 Sept	34.7 °C	11 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
17 Sept	34.5 °C	11 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
18 Sept	35.9 °C	12 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
19 Sept	35.0 °C	14 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
20 Sept	34.5 °C	15 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
21 Sept	34.8 °C	17 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
22 Sept	34.3 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
23 Sept after	34.2 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
24 Sept after	35.0 °C	13 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
25 Sept after	35.3 °C	12 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
26 Sept after	36.0 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
27 Sept after	34.2 °C	17 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
28 Sept after	35.1 °C	19 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
29 Sept after	33.3 °C	16 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
30 Sept after	32.8 °C	18 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
1 Oct after	33.3 °C	21 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
2 Oct after	33.9 °C	19 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
3 Oct after	35.5 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
4 Oct after	34.7 °C	17 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
5 Oct after	34.5 °C	25 %	36 km/h	1.9 mm	High 27

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Aug 2017

After · 29 Sept 2017

Before After

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 · 408Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Luchazes fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2017 and 22 September 2017: 23 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 10,591 hectares (105.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luchazes (10,690 ha, 0.3 %); Bundas (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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.

Where it burned