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Mavinga fire, 19 August 2021 Mavinga

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2021, 13:06 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2021 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,292 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 269th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 49 in Angola in 2021, of 126.

Burnt area
8,292ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
19 Aug 2021 – 26 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
19 Aug
2021
Heat detections
349
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
44km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,696 ha in 2017, 1,722 ha in 2018, 4,416 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,269 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    8,337 ha reached on 19 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)
19 Aug 31.2 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Aug 31.6 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Aug 31.6 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Aug 30.9 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Aug 32.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug 32.4 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Aug 32.8 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Aug 33.2 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Aug after 33.6 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Aug after 29.2 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Aug after 27.8 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Aug after 31.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug after 32.1 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Sept after 32.4 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Sept after 32.0 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Sept after 30.7 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Sept after 31.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Sept after 33.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2021
After · 2 Sept 2021

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 · 349Every 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 August 2021 and 26 August 2021: 8 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 8,292 hectares (82.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (8,337 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.