Matala fire, 13 August 2024 Matala, Quipungo
The fire started on 13 August 2024 in Matala, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,963 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Huíla since 2016 (of 70 with a page). Number 3 in Angola in 2024, of 135.
- Burnt area
- 32,963ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 13 Aug 2024 – 23 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 1,504
- in a single hotspot: 1,124 MW
- Danger at start
- 58
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 53.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,452 ha in 2016, 6,259 ha in 2017, 5,094 ha in 2018, 8,219 ha in 2019, 1,231 ha in 2020, 8,512 ha in 2021, 4,021 ha in 2022, 3,347 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,950 ha that had burned before.
- 6,778 ha Matala fire, August 2021 10,088 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,680 ha Matala fire, September 2018 8,317 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,568 ha Quipungo fire, September 2019 7,869 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,675 ha Matala fire, August 2017 12,933 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,583 ha Matala fire, November 2019 6,703 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,549 ha Matala fire, September 2022 5,053 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Matala where it started22,680 ha reached on 13 Aug2.5 %
-
10,469 ha reached on 18 Aug1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug | 33.5 °C | 6 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 14 Aug | 33.5 °C | 6 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 15 Aug | 32.9 °C | 6 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 16 Aug | 32.9 °C | 6 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 17 Aug | 32.9 °C | 8 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 18 Aug | 33.0 °C | 8 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 19 Aug | 32.5 °C | 7 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 20 Aug | 32.9 °C | 6 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 21 Aug | 33.0 °C | 7 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 22 Aug | 33.0 °C | 5 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 23 Aug | 32.8 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 24 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 7 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 25 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 26 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 6 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 27 Aug after | 34.0 °C | 4 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 28 Aug after | 34.8 °C | 4 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 29 Aug after | 34.4 °C | 7 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 30 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 7 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 31 Aug after | 34.6 °C | 10 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 1 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 14 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 2 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 11 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 23 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 68 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 46: 3.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 1,504Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,088 haMatalaAugust 2021 · 8 days · 11 km away
- 23,106 haMatala23 September 2026 · 15 days · 14 km away
- 12,933 haMatalaAugust 2017 · 4 days · 16 km away
- 21,094 haQuipungo9 August 2019 · 21 days · 26 km away
- 12,297 haMatala5 August 2016 · 11 days · 27 km away
- 14,043 haQuipungo20 August 2024 · 17 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Matala fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 August 2024 and 23 August 2024: 11 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 32,963 hectares (329.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Matala (22,680 ha, 2.5 %); Quipungo (10,469 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.
Report an error
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.