Luchazes fire, 11 August 2024 Luchazes
The fire started on 11 August 2024 in Luchazes, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,008 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 65th largest in Moxico since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 83 in Angola in 2024, of 135.
- Burnt area
- 6,008ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 11 Aug 2024 – 23 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 232
- in a single hotspot: 99 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 50 ha in 2016, 2,619 ha in 2017, 539 ha in 2018, 2,208 ha in 2019, 2,277 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,176 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Luchazes where it started6,054 ha reached on 9 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug | 31.2 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 12 Aug | 31.2 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 13 Aug | 31.8 °C | 6 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Aug | 31.8 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Aug | 31.7 °C | 7 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 16 Aug | 31.5 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 17 Aug | 31.0 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 18 Aug | 30.7 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 19 Aug | 30.5 °C | 7 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 20 Aug | 30.9 °C | 8 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 21 Aug | 30.3 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Aug | 30.7 °C | 7 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 23 Aug | 30.6 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 24 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 25 Aug after | 30.6 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Aug after | 30.8 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Aug after | 31.7 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 8 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Aug after | 33.8 °C | 5 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 30 Aug after | 34.0 °C | 7 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 31 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 15 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 1 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 2 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 15 % | 40 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.
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 · CopernicusOn 15 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 232Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Luchazes fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 August 2024 and 23 August 2024: 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 6,008 hectares (60.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Luchazes (6,054 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 46 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
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.