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Marimba fire, June 2019 Marimba, Cunda-dia-Baze

Out · last detection 14 Jun 2019, 13:01 UTC

The fire started on 5 June 2019 in Marimba, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,352 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 102th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 179 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
5,352ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
5 Jun 2019 – 14 Jun 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
5 Jun
2019
Heat detections
180
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Jun 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Jun14 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
39km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,142 ha in 2016, 2,111 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,567 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Marimba where it started
    4,634 ha reached on 4 Jun
    0.8 %
  2. Cunda-dia-Baze
    758 ha reached on 4 Jun
    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)
5 Jun 29.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Jun 30.0 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Jun 31.0 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Jun 31.2 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Jun 31.5 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Jun 30.5 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Jun 29.5 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Jun 29.6 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Jun 30.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jun 30.8 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Jun after 30.0 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Jun after 29.4 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Jun after 30.3 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Jun after 30.4 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Jun after 29.8 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Jun after 30.2 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Jun after 30.7 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Jun after 29.7 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Jun after 28.6 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Jun after 30.2 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 May 2019
After · 21 Jun 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 · 180Every 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 Marimba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 June 2019 and 14 June 2019: 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 5,352 hectares (53.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Marimba (4,634 ha, 0.8 %); Cunda-dia-Baze (758 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.