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Mavinga fire, 14 September 2018 Mavinga

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2018, 12:09 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2018 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,321 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 438th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 56 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
6,321ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
14 Sept 2018 – 22 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Sept
2018
Heat detections
220
in a single hotspot: 317 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
41km/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

26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 781 ha in 2016, 892 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    6,374 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.1 %

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 34.3 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Sept 35.1 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Sept 36.1 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept 35.7 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Sept 36.7 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Sept 36.6 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Sept 35.0 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Sept 35.3 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Sept 34.8 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Sept after 34.8 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
24 Sept after 35.5 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Sept after 35.4 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Sept after 36.0 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Sept after 35.9 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 51
28 Sept after 36.8 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Sept after 35.1 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
30 Sept after 33.9 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 64
1 Oct after 31.7 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Oct after 32.6 °C 15 % 42 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 · 7 Sept 2018
After · 29 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 · 220Every 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 14 September 2018 and 22 September 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 6,321 hectares (63.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (6,374 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.