Mavinga fire, 15 August 2023 Mavinga
The fire started on 15 August 2023 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,469 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 22th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 3 in Angola in 2023, of 158.
- Burnt area
- 28,469ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 28days
- 15 Aug 2023 – 11 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 1,158
- in a single hotspot: 139 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 14.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,034 ha in 2016, 3,192 ha in 2017, 9,995 ha in 2018, 4,646 ha in 2019, 1,164 ha in 2020, 14,831 ha in 2021, 2,516 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 25,373 ha that had burned before.
- 10,933 ha Mavinga fire, August 2016 21,075 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,248 ha Mavinga fire, August 2021 23,630 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,690 ha Mavinga fire, September 2018 12,634 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,867 ha Mavinga fire, July 2019 16,207 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 606 ha Mavinga fire, August 2019 5,074 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 585 ha Mavinga fire, September 2017 10,463 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Mavinga fire, August 2018 6,337 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mavinga where it started28,695 ha reached on 15 Aug0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug | 30.6 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 16 Aug | 30.4 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Aug | 31.1 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Aug | 31.9 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Aug | 31.5 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Aug | 32.2 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 21 Aug | 33.2 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 22 Aug | 34.3 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Aug | 34.7 °C | 11 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Aug | 34.0 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Aug | 34.0 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 26 Aug | 33.5 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Aug | 31.9 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 28 Aug | 28.4 °C | 29 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 29 Aug | 27.3 °C | 27 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 30 Aug | 27.2 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 Aug | 28.3 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Sept | 31.5 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 Sept | 32.1 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Sept | 33.1 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Sept | 33.0 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 5 Sept | 33.2 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Sept | 33.2 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Sept | 33.9 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 8 Sept | 34.0 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 9 Sept | 34.2 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 10 Sept | 33.5 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 11 Sept | 34.5 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 12 Sept after | 27.6 °C | 15 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 13 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Sept after | 32.8 °C | 15 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 15 Sept after | 33.5 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 11 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Sept after | 35.8 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Sept after | 34.3 °C | 15 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 20 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 21 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 1,158Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,945 haMavinga9 September 2025 · 21 days · 7 km away
- 21,075 haMavinga1 August 2016 · 8 days · 9 km away
- 23,630 haMavinga25 August 2021 · 15 days · 10 km away
- 16,870 haMavinga19 August 2024 · 14 days · 15 km away
- 16,207 haMavinga12 July 2019 · 25 days · 15 km away
- 43,374 haMavinga26 August 2026 · 24 days · 17 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mavinga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2023 and 11 September 2023: 28 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 28,469 hectares (284.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mavinga (28,695 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.
Report an error
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.