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Mavinga fire, 15 September 2017 Mavinga

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2017 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,269 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 221th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 38 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
9,269ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
15 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Sept
2017
Heat detections
346
in a single hotspot: 132 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
48km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 6 Oct.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 479 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    9,355 ha reached on 15 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)
14 Sept 34.4 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Sept 33.9 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Sept 34.9 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Sept 35.3 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Sept 36.5 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Sept 35.6 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Sept 35.4 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
21 Sept 34.8 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
22 Sept 34.5 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Sept 34.8 °C 11 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Sept 35.5 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Sept 35.9 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Sept 36.5 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Sept 34.1 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Sept after 35.5 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Sept after 32.3 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Sept after 32.9 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Oct after 33.4 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Oct after 33.9 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Oct after 35.9 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Oct after 36.7 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
5 Oct after 34.2 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
6 Oct after 30.0 °C 34 % 42 km/h 1.6 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2017
After · 4 Oct 2017

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 · 346Every 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 Mavinga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2017 and 27 September 2017: 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 9,269 hectares (92.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (9,355 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.