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Matala fire, September 2018 Matala, Quipungo

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2018, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2018 in Matala, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,317 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 25th largest in Huíla since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 27 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
8,317ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
1 Sept 2018 – 7 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
1 Sept
2018
Heat detections
264
in a single hotspot: 211 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

34567

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
35km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,772 ha in 2016, 836 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,130 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Matala where it started
    6,394 ha reached on 3 Sept
    0.7 %
  2. Quipungo
    1,965 ha reached on 3 Sept
    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)
1 Sept 33.2 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Sept 33.4 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept 33.1 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Sept 34.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Sept 33.8 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Sept 32.5 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Sept 33.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Sept after 33.6 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept after 32.5 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 Sept after 33.0 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Sept after 32.8 °C 4 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Sept after 32.8 °C 4 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Sept after 34.2 °C 6 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Sept after 34.8 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Sept after 35.4 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept after 35.0 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept after 35.6 °C 7 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2018
After · 14 Sept 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 · 264Every 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 1 September 2018 and 7 September 2018: 7 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 8,317 hectares (83.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Matala (6,394 ha, 0.7 %); Quipungo (1,965 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.