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Mavinga fire, 3 September 2022 Mavinga

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2022, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 3 September 2022 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,565 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 251th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 42 in Angola in 2022, of 143.

Burnt area
8,565ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
3 Sept 2022 – 17 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
3 Sept
2022
Heat detections
295
in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Sept17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3456789101112131415161718

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
48km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,778 ha in 2016, 68 ha in 2017, 4,560 ha in 2018, 1,649 ha in 2019, 2,225 ha in 2020, 558 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,856 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    8,585 ha reached on 3 Sept
    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)
3 Sept 28.1 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Sept 32.0 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept 33.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Sept 34.8 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Sept 33.8 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Sept 32.0 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Sept 32.1 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Sept 32.2 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Sept 33.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Sept 33.9 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Sept 33.9 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept 32.6 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Sept 30.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 30.6 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Sept 32.1 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept after 33.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept after 34.4 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Sept after 32.6 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Sept after 32.3 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept after 33.5 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Sept after 35.1 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Sept after 35.2 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Sept after 34.6 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
26 Sept after 35.5 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Sept after 35.0 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Aug 2022
After · 24 Sept 2022

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 · 295Every 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 3 September 2022 and 17 September 2022: 15 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 8,565 hectares (85.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (8,585 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.