Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Luchazes fire, 31 August 2019 Luchazes

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2019, 12:53 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2019 in Luchazes, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,455 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 51th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 121 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
6,455ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
31 Aug 2019 – 12 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2019
Heat detections
253
in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3112345678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
52km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 488 ha in 2016, 402 ha in 2017, 818 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,393 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Luchazes where it started
    6,506 ha reached on 31 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)
31 Aug 33.4 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Sept 31.8 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Sept 32.5 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept 33.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 34.1 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Sept 34.6 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Sept 34.8 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Sept 33.7 °C 13 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Sept 27.6 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Sept 26.6 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Sept 29.3 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Sept 32.3 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Sept 34.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept after 35.5 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Sept after 35.4 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Sept after 35.6 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Sept after 33.7 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Sept after 33.6 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Sept after 33.6 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Sept after 34.3 °C 8 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Sept after 34.4 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept after 35.6 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Sept after 35.2 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2019
After · 19 Sept 2019

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 · 253Every 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 31 August 2019 and 12 September 2019: 13 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 6,455 hectares (64.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luchazes (6,506 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.