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Luquembo fire, July 2018 Luquembo, Cangandala

Out · last detection 13 Jul 2018, 13:00 UTC

The fire started on 3 July 2018 in Luquembo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,070 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 120th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 96 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
5,070ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
3 Jul 2018 – 12 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
3 Jul
2018
Heat detections
224
in a single hotspot: 187 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jul12 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

34578910111213

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
43km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8 ha in 2016, 1,407 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Luquembo where it started
    3,878 ha reached on 3 Jul
    0.4 %
  2. Cangandala
    1,217 ha reached on 4 Jul
    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)
3 Jul 28.8 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Jul 28.9 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Jul 27.8 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Jul 29.1 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Jul 28.5 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jul 28.9 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Jul 28.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Jul 29.6 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Jul 29.5 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Jul 30.0 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Jul after 29.4 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Jul after 29.7 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Jul after 30.4 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Jul after 30.3 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jul after 29.3 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jul after 27.2 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jul after 28.5 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Jul after 28.2 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jul after 29.5 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jul after 29.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jun 2018
After · 19 Jul 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 · 224Every 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 Luquembo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 July 2018 and 12 July 2018: 10 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 5,070 hectares (50.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luquembo (3,878 ha, 0.4 %); Cangandala (1,217 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
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.