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Mavinga fire, 17 August 2018 Mavinga, Cuito Cuanavale

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2018, 12:53 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2018 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,409 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 430th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 53 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
6,409ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
17 Aug 2018 – 25 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
17 Aug
2018
Heat detections
201
in a single hotspot: 145 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122232425

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
44km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    6,092 ha reached on 17 Aug
    0.1 %
  2. Cuito Cuanavale
    347 ha reached on 17 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
17 Aug 32.6 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Aug 30.8 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Aug 31.2 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Aug 31.3 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Aug 31.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Aug 32.0 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Aug 33.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Aug 33.5 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Aug 33.4 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Aug after 33.2 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Aug after 32.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Aug after 30.3 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
29 Aug after 31.4 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Aug after 30.9 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Aug after 31.0 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Sept after 31.3 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Sept after 32.3 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Sept after 33.5 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept after 34.0 °C 14 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2018
After · 1 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 · 201Every 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 17 August 2018 and 25 August 2018: 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 6,409 hectares (64.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mavinga (6,092 ha, 0.1 %); Cuito Cuanavale (347 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 44 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.