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Luchazes fire, 15 August 2023 Luchazes

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2023, 13:07 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2023 in Luchazes, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,819 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 15 in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Luchazes · 2017

Burnt area
12,819ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
34days
15 Aug 2023 – 17 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Aug
2023
Heat detections
658
in a single hotspot: 406 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
216MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug17 Sept
18 Sept 2023

How it evolved, day by day

15 Aug 2023 · 636 MW · 15 16 Aug 2023 · 142 MW · 9 17 Aug 2023 · 105 MW · 6 18 Aug 2023 · 2 MW · 2 19 Aug 2023 · 13 MW · 4 20 Aug 2023 · 6 MW · 1 21 Aug 2023 · 190 MW · 11 22 Aug 2023 · 411 MW · 9 23 Aug 2023 · 57 MW · 10 24 Aug 2023 · 182 MW · 31 25 Aug 2023 · 49 MW · 9 26 Aug 2023 · 316 MW · 10 27 Aug 2023 · 12 MW · 3 28 Aug 2023 · 103 MW · 22 29 Aug 2023 · 70 MW · 24 30 Aug 2023 · 209 MW · 47 31 Aug 2023 · 525 MW · 52 1 Sept 2023 · 280 MW · 30 2 Sept 2023 · 759 MW · 66 3 Sept 2023 · 398 MW · 81 4 Sept 2023 · 317 MW · 45 5 Sept 2023 · 265 MW · 25 6 Sept 2023 · 51 MW · 8 7 Sept 2023 · 80 MW · 9 8 Sept 2023 · 168 MW · 8 9 Sept 2023 · 134 MW · 25 10 Sept 2023 · 732 MW · 44 11 Sept 2023 · 67 MW · 9 12 Sept 2023 · 28 MW · 8 13 Sept 2023 · 152 MW · 13 14 Sept 2023 · 10 MW · 7 15 Sept 2023 · 49 MW · 4 17 Sept 2023 · 744 MW · 5 18 Sept 2023 · 87 MW · 6
15 Aug 20 Aug 25 Aug 30 Aug 2 Sept 4 Sept 9 Sept 14 Sept

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
48km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,172 ha in 2016, 3 ha in 2017, 2,980 ha in 2019, 2,294 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,297 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.1% of the area of London (128 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Luchazes where it started
    12,886 ha reached on 15 Aug
    0.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
15 Aug 29.1 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Aug 30.1 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Aug 31.0 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Aug 31.9 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Aug 31.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Aug 31.8 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug 33.1 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug 32.9 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Aug 33.6 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Aug 33.7 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Aug 34.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Aug 33.3 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Aug 32.6 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Aug 29.7 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Aug 28.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 27.6 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Aug 29.6 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Sept 31.1 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept 32.2 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept 32.8 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Sept 32.6 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept 32.1 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept 33.3 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Sept 32.1 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Sept 33.1 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Sept 32.7 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Sept 33.0 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Sept 33.3 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept 32.1 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Sept 32.1 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Sept 31.8 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept 32.4 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 33.6 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Sept 34.6 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Sept after 33.9 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept after 33.2 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept after 31.6 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
21 Sept after 33.0 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Sept after 33.7 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Sept after 35.1 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Sept after 32.8 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Sept after 34.0 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Sept after 33.3 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Sept after 32.2 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Sept after 32.4 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2023
After · 24 Sept 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 3 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak74 µg/m³
Days over the guideline33 days
PM10106 µg/m³
Optical depth1.24
131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 658Every 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 15 August 2023 and 17 September 2023: 34 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 12,819 hectares (128.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luchazes (12,886 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 658 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.