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Luquembo fire, 17 July 2026 Luquembo

Out · last detection 7 Aug 2026, 12:17 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2026 in Luquembo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,361 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 12th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 105 in Angola in 2026, of 487.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Luquembo · 2017Luquembo · 2019N'harea · 2026Luquembo · 2026

Burnt area
13,361ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
17 Jul 2026 – 7 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Jul
2026
Heat detections
414
in a single hotspot: 220 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
273MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul7 Aug
7 Aug 2026

How it evolved, day by day

17 Jul 2026 · 44 MW · 7 18 Jul 2026 · 1,795 MW · 51 19 Jul 2026 · 334 MW · 38 20 Jul 2026 · 105 MW · 13 21 Jul 2026 · 22 MW · 7 22 Jul 2026 · 382 MW · 22 23 Jul 2026 · 195 MW · 23 24 Jul 2026 · 185 MW · 17 25 Jul 2026 · 89 MW · 12 26 Jul 2026 · 276 MW · 37 27 Jul 2026 · 199 MW · 29 28 Jul 2026 · 115 MW · 14 29 Jul 2026 · 134 MW · 17 30 Jul 2026 · 180 MW · 13 31 Jul 2026 · 217 MW · 6 1 Aug 2026 · 249 MW · 23 2 Aug 2026 · 510 MW · 21 3 Aug 2026 · 5 MW · 5 5 Aug 2026 · 404 MW · 32 6 Aug 2026 · 233 MW · 20 7 Aug 2026 · 50 MW · 7
17 Jul 18 Jul 20 Jul 23 Jul 26 Jul 29 Jul 1 Aug 5 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
45km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,829 ha in 2016, 921 ha in 2017, 2,095 ha in 2018, 5,561 ha in 2019, 3,936 ha in 2020, 3,963 ha in 2021, 1,929 ha in 2022, 3,978 ha in 2023, 1,757 ha in 2024, 4,310 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,197 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.4% of the area of London (134 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. Luquembo where it started
    13,432 ha reached on 17 Jul
    1.3 %

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)
17 Jul 27.7 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Jul 28.3 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jul 30.0 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Jul 29.3 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Jul 29.6 °C 31 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Jul 31.4 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Jul 32.6 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Jul 32.3 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jul 31.1 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Jul 30.6 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Jul 30.6 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jul 29.9 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Jul 29.9 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jul 29.9 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul 30.9 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug 30.8 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Aug 30.9 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Aug 30.2 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Aug 29.8 °C 26 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Aug 31.1 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Aug 31.3 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Aug 32.4 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Aug after 31.7 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Aug after 31.9 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Aug after 32.0 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Aug after 31.7 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Aug after 32.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Aug after 32.1 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Aug after 32.1 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Aug after 32.2 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Aug after 31.3 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Aug after 31.6 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jul 2026
After · 14 Aug 2026

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 18 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 162 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 74: 5.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak162 µg/m³
Days over the guideline19 days
PM10165 µg/m³
Optical depth1.07
16171819202122232425262728293031123
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 · 414Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 July 2026 to 7 August 2026 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 July 2026 to 31 July 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,361 hectares (133.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luquembo (13,432 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 31 July 2026 → 7 August 2026.
  2. Start date: 18 July 2026 → 17 July 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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 July 2026 to 31 July 2026. 414 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.