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Luchazes fire, September 2018 Luchazes

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2018, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2018 in Luchazes, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,616 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 29th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 33 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
7,616ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
9 Sept 2018 – 23 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Sept
2018
Heat detections
332
in a single hotspot: 240 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
8.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151617181920212223

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
48km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 718 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Luchazes where it started
    7,674 ha reached on 6 Sept
    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)
9 Sept 32.4 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Sept 30.9 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept 31.9 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Sept 32.8 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 34.2 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept 34.4 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Sept 34.6 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Sept 34.3 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Sept 34.7 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Sept 36.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Sept 36.3 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Sept 34.7 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
21 Sept 34.6 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 Sept 33.7 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Sept 35.0 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Sept after 34.5 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Sept after 33.9 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Sept after 32.9 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 46
27 Sept after 34.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Sept after 35.0 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Sept after 34.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Sept after 32.2 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Oct after 31.6 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Oct after 32.2 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Oct after 33.8 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2018
After · 30 Sept 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 · 332Every 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 9 September 2018 and 23 September 2018: 15 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 7,616 hectares (76.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luchazes (7,674 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.