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Mavinga fire, June 2023 Mavinga

Out · last detection 18 Jun 2023, 11:51 UTC

The fire started on 13 June 2023 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,983 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 478th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 106 in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Burnt area
5,983ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
13 Jun 2023 – 17 Jun 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Jun
2023
Heat detections
178
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jun 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jun17 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
35km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,767 ha in 2017, 3,231 ha in 2019, 3,043 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,977 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    6,017 ha reached on 13 Jun
    0.1 %

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)
13 Jun 26.2 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Jun 26.9 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Jun 26.7 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Jun 27.4 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Jun 26.9 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jun after 26.7 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Jun after 26.6 °C 22 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Jun after 26.6 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Jun after 26.8 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jun after 27.0 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Jun after 26.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Jun after 24.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Jun after 24.4 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jun after 26.0 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jun after 26.1 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Jun 2023
After · 24 Jun 2023

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 · 178Every 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 13 June 2023 and 17 June 2023: 5 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 5,983 hectares (59.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (6,017 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
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.