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Marimba fire, 22 July 2026 Marimba, Cahombo

Out · last detection 31 Jul 2026, 12:49 UTC

The fire started on 22 July 2026 in Marimba, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,153 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 41th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 261 in Angola in 2026, of 485.

Burnt area
7,153ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
22 Jul 2026 – 30 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
22 Jul
2026
Heat detections
131
in a single hotspot: 218 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jul 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jul30 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2224252627283031

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
31km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 544 ha in 2016, 1,207 ha in 2017, 613 ha in 2018, 2,689 ha in 2019, 3,585 ha in 2020, 1,470 ha in 2021, 1,602 ha in 2023, 2,805 ha in 2024, 3,042 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,689 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Marimba where it started
    6,019 ha reached on 17 Jul
    1.0 %
  2. Cahombo
    1,183 ha reached on 22 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)
17 Jul 32.0 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Jul 31.5 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jul 32.9 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Jul 29.9 °C 35 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Jul 31.0 °C 43 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Jul 34.5 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Jul 34.6 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jul 34.9 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Jul 33.1 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jul 33.5 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Jul 33.0 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Jul 32.8 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul 32.8 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Jul 30.8 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Jul after 33.1 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Aug after 32.4 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug after 33.6 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Aug after 31.5 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Aug after 32.2 °C 36 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Aug after 33.2 °C 32 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Aug after 34.1 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Aug after 33.1 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Aug after 33.1 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Aug after 32.4 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Aug after 32.5 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Aug after 32.5 °C 35 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jul 2026
After · 6 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 26 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 138 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 96: 6.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak138 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10142 µg/m³
Optical depth1.27
20212223242526272829303112
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 · 131Every 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 22 July 2026 and 30 July 2026: 9 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 7,153 hectares (71.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Marimba (6,019 ha, 1.0 %); Cahombo (1,183 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.