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Mavinga fire, 13 September 2017 Mavinga

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2017, 13:12 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2017 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,152 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 355th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 64 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
7,152ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
13 Sept 2017 – 21 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Sept
2017
Heat detections
291
in a single hotspot: 191 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

13141516171819202122

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
50km/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

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 426 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    7,172 ha reached on 12 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)
13 Sept 34.0 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept 34.4 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Sept 34.0 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Sept 34.9 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Sept 34.5 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept 36.3 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Sept 35.0 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Sept 34.5 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Sept 34.5 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Sept after 34.3 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Sept after 34.1 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Sept after 34.8 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Sept after 35.5 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Sept after 36.5 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept after 34.0 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Sept after 34.7 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Sept after 32.7 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Sept after 33.0 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Oct after 33.3 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2017
After · 28 Sept 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 · 291Every 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 13 September 2017 and 21 September 2017: 9 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 7,152 hectares (71.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (7,172 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.