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Mavinga fire, 30 August 2019 Mavinga

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2019, 23:31 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2019 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,717 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 57th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 16 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
17,717ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
30 Aug 2019 – 19 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Aug
2019
Heat detections
791
in a single hotspot: 308 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
18.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

30123467891011121314151617181920

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
52km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,160 ha in 2016, 812 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,740 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    17,750 ha reached on 30 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
30 Aug 33.9 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug 34.0 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Sept 30.5 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Sept 32.8 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept 33.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Sept 33.8 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept 34.4 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Sept 34.9 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Sept 33.0 °C 13 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
8 Sept 26.9 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept 26.9 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Sept 29.3 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Sept 31.4 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Sept 35.1 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept 35.2 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Sept 35.2 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Sept 35.7 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
16 Sept 34.1 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
17 Sept 33.7 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
18 Sept 33.6 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Sept 34.1 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Sept after 34.0 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
21 Sept after 35.1 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Sept after 35.8 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Sept after 35.1 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
24 Sept after 35.2 °C 11 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
25 Sept after 34.3 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Sept after 29.1 °C 29 % 51 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 50
27 Sept after 30.4 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Sept after 31.9 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Sept after 34.2 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Sept after 34.5 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Oct after 33.2 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Oct after 35.2 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
3 Oct after 36.4 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Oct after 34.1 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Oct after 33.5 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Oct after 34.8 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2019
After · 26 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 · 791Every 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 30 August 2019 and 19 September 2019: 21 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 17,717 hectares (177.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (17,750 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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.