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Mavinga fire, 19 July 2019 Mavinga

Out · last detection 25 Jul 2019, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 19 July 2019 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,757 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 389th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 108 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
6,757ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Jul 2019 – 25 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
19 Jul
2019
Heat detections
204
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jul25 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
38km/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

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 61 ha in 2016, 4,422 ha in 2017, 537 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    6,814 ha reached on 19 Jul
    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)
19 Jul 26.8 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Jul 27.3 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jul 27.5 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jul 27.9 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Jul 28.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Jul 28.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jul 28.6 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Jul after 28.8 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Jul after 28.3 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Jul after 27.6 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Jul after 28.5 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Jul after 29.0 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Jul after 29.2 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Aug after 29.0 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Aug after 29.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Aug after 31.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Aug after 31.0 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jul 2019
After · 1 Aug 2019

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 · 204Every 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 19 July 2019 and 25 July 2019: 7 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 6,757 hectares (67.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (6,814 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.