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Matala fire, 7 August 2018 Matala

Out · last detection 19 Aug 2018, 13:06 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2018 in Matala, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,836 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 49th largest in Huíla since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 72 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
5,836ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
7 Aug 2018 – 19 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
7 Aug
2018
Heat detections
215
in a single hotspot: 335 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug19 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
45km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 827 ha in 2016, 604 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Matala where it started
    5,875 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
7 Aug 33.9 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Aug 34.2 °C 5 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
9 Aug 33.1 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Aug 31.5 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Aug 33.1 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Aug 33.9 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Aug 33.1 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
14 Aug 33.0 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Aug 32.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Aug 33.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Aug 33.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Aug 34.0 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Aug 33.4 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Aug after 32.6 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Aug after 32.3 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Aug after 32.2 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Aug after 32.9 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Aug after 33.9 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Aug after 32.5 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Aug after 33.7 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Aug after 33.4 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Aug after 32.5 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Aug after 33.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Jul 2018
After · 26 Aug 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 · 215Every 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 Matala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 August 2018 and 19 August 2018: 13 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 5,836 hectares (58.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Matala (5,875 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, class Extreme.
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.