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Matala fire, August 2021 Matala, Quipungo

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2021, 23:44 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2021 in Matala, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,088 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Huíla since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 31 in Angola in 2021, of 126.

Burnt area
10,088ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
27 Aug 2021 – 3 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
27 Aug
2021
Heat detections
311
in a single hotspot: 232 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug3 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

28293031123

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
35km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,804 ha in 2016, 813 ha in 2017, 5,125 ha in 2018, 6,580 ha in 2019, 52 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,653 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Matala where it started
    6,590 ha reached on 28 Aug
    0.7 %
  2. Quipungo
    3,554 ha reached on 29 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
27 Aug 33.8 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Aug 31.8 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Aug 31.7 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Aug 33.5 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Aug 34.2 °C 4 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Sept 34.1 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Sept 35.2 °C 5 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Sept 34.2 °C 8 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Sept after 33.6 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Sept after 33.6 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Sept after 35.6 °C 7 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
7 Sept after 35.7 °C 6 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Sept after 36.1 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
9 Sept after 34.9 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Sept after 34.1 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
11 Sept after 33.3 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
12 Sept after 33.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept after 34.4 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2021
After · 10 Sept 2021

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 · 311Every 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 27 August 2021 and 3 September 2021: 8 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 10,088 hectares (100.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Matala (6,590 ha, 0.7 %); Quipungo (3,554 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.