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Mavinga fire, 28 August 2019 Mavinga

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2019, 12:28 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2019 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,425 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 335th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 93 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
7,425ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
28 Aug 2019 – 8 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Aug
2019
Heat detections
334
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug8 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

28293031123456789

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
53km/h · peak gust
8%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: 1 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    7,442 ha reached on 21 Aug
    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)
28 Aug 32.9 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Aug 34.2 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Aug 33.8 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Aug 33.8 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Sept 30.4 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Sept 32.6 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Sept 33.4 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Sept 33.6 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept 34.4 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Sept 34.8 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Sept 32.7 °C 13 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
8 Sept 26.9 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Sept after 26.8 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Sept after 29.1 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Sept after 31.2 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept after 34.8 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept after 35.0 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Sept after 34.9 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 Sept after 35.5 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
16 Sept after 33.8 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
17 Sept after 33.6 °C 8 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
18 Sept after 33.4 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Aug 2019
After · 15 Sept 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 · 334Every 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 28 August 2019 and 8 September 2019: 12 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 7,425 hectares (74.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (7,442 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.