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Luchazes fire, 1 September 2017 Luchazes, Bundas

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2017, 12:41 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2017 in Luchazes, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,146 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 32th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 65 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
7,146ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
1 Sept 2017 – 12 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
1 Sept
2017
Heat detections
378
in a single hotspot: 202 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12345678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
52km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 319 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Luchazes where it started
    7,039 ha reached on 1 Sept
    0.2 %
  2. Bundas
    137 ha reached on 3 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)
1 Sept 31.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 31.6 °C 12 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Sept 30.3 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Sept 30.5 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Sept 31.0 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 32.6 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 32.6 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Sept 32.3 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Sept 32.1 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Sept 32.1 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Sept 32.3 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Sept 32.6 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Sept after 33.4 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Sept after 33.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept after 33.3 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Sept after 34.1 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Sept after 33.2 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Sept after 34.9 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept after 33.9 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept after 33.2 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Sept after 33.3 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept after 32.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2017
After · 19 Sept 2017

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 · 378Every 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 Luchazes fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 September 2017 and 12 September 2017: 12 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 7,146 hectares (71.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luchazes (7,039 ha, 0.2 %); Bundas (137 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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

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.