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Marimba fire, July 2022 Marimba, Cunda-dia-Baze

Out · last detection 20 Jul 2022, 23:41 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2022 in Marimba, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,583 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 86th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 112 in Angola in 2022, of 143.

Burnt area
5,583ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
15 Jul 2022 – 19 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
15 Jul
2022
Heat detections
139
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jul 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul19 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920

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
35km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,760 ha in 2016, 1,627 ha in 2017, 978 ha in 2018, 1,598 ha in 2019, 1,539 ha in 2020, 2,052 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,859 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Marimba where it started
    4,009 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.6 %
  2. Cunda-dia-Baze
    1,613 ha reached on 15 Jul
    0.5 %

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)
15 Jul 32.4 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Jul 31.0 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Jul 32.5 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Jul 31.7 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Jul 31.9 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Jul after 29.6 °C 36 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jul after 32.4 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Jul after 33.2 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Jul after 31.9 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Jul after 33.9 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Jul after 33.7 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jul after 33.8 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Jul after 34.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Jul after 32.6 °C 19 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Jul after 31.3 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2022
After · 26 Jul 2022

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 · 139Every 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 15 July 2022 and 19 July 2022: 5 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 5,583 hectares (55.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Marimba (4,009 ha, 0.6 %); Cunda-dia-Baze (1,613 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.