Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Luchazes fire, 4 September 2017 Luchazes

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2017, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2017 in Luchazes, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,785 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 43th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 78 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
6,785ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
4 Sept 2017 – 11 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
4 Sept
2017
Heat detections
198
in a single hotspot: 165 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

4567891011

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
46km/h · peak gust
12%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. Luchazes where it started
    6,841 ha reached on 30 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
4 Sept 30.8 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Sept 32.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Sept 33.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 32.9 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Sept 32.7 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept 32.3 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Sept 32.4 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Sept 32.6 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Sept after 33.3 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept after 33.8 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Sept after 34.3 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Sept after 33.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Sept after 34.6 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept after 34.0 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept after 35.4 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Sept after 34.6 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Sept after 33.9 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Sept after 34.0 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2017
After · 18 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 · 198Every 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 4 September 2017 and 11 September 2017: 8 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 6,785 hectares (67.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luchazes (6,841 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.