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Mavinga fire, 20 August 2023 Mavinga

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2023, 12:29 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2023 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 35,020 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). The largest in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Mavinga · 2019Mavinga · 2019Mavinga · 2016Mavinga · 2018

Burnt area
35,020ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
31days
20 Aug 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Aug
2023
Heat detections
1,672
in a single hotspot: 354 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
685MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug19 Sept
20 Sept 2023

How it evolved, day by day

20 Aug 2023 · 215 MW · 23 21 Aug 2023 · 275 MW · 10 22 Aug 2023 · 726 MW · 21 23 Aug 2023 · 1,294 MW · 73 24 Aug 2023 · 1,857 MW · 87 25 Aug 2023 · 303 MW · 64 26 Aug 2023 · 343 MW · 44 27 Aug 2023 · 111 MW · 17 28 Aug 2023 · 22 MW · 11 29 Aug 2023 · 14 MW · 3 30 Aug 2023 · 132 MW · 20 31 Aug 2023 · 352 MW · 26 1 Sept 2023 · 222 MW · 19 2 Sept 2023 · 376 MW · 40 3 Sept 2023 · 757 MW · 26 4 Sept 2023 · 150 MW · 14 5 Sept 2023 · 79 MW · 11 6 Sept 2023 · 313 MW · 25 7 Sept 2023 · 2,989 MW · 70 8 Sept 2023 · 2,539 MW · 165 9 Sept 2023 · 2,007 MW · 173 10 Sept 2023 · 1,286 MW · 114 11 Sept 2023 · 1,502 MW · 90 12 Sept 2023 · 536 MW · 40 13 Sept 2023 · 1,421 MW · 82 14 Sept 2023 · 149 MW · 27 15 Sept 2023 · 573 MW · 26 16 Sept 2023 · 335 MW · 29 17 Sept 2023 · 279 MW · 16 18 Sept 2023 · 474 MW · 43 19 Sept 2023 · 264 MW · 29 20 Sept 2023 · 12 MW · 2
20 Aug 25 Aug 30 Aug 4 Sept 7 Sept 9 Sept 14 Sept 19 Sept

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
55km/h · peak gust
9%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: 9,200 ha in 2016, 4,029 ha in 2018, 23,677 ha in 2019, 2,633 ha in 2021, 159 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 27,889 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 22% of the area of London (350 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavinga where it started
    35,113 ha reached on 17 Aug
    0.8 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
20 Aug 32.3 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Aug 33.5 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug 33.9 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Aug 34.6 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Aug 33.9 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Aug 34.1 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Aug 33.9 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Aug 32.7 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
28 Aug 29.3 °C 23 % 55 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 57
29 Aug 28.2 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug 27.6 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug 29.0 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Sept 31.7 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 32.4 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Sept 33.1 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Sept 32.8 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Sept 32.8 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Sept 33.7 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Sept 34.0 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept 33.9 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Sept 33.8 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Sept 33.4 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Sept 35.1 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept 30.0 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Sept 32.5 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Sept 32.8 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Sept 33.3 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Sept 34.0 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Sept 34.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Sept 35.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Sept 34.2 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Sept after 34.3 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Sept after 35.1 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Sept after 34.6 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
23 Sept after 35.7 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Sept after 34.0 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Sept after 34.5 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Sept after 30.8 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Sept after 31.8 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Sept after 33.4 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Sept after 34.6 °C 17 % 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.

Before · 13 Aug 2023
After · 26 Sept 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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 11 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 100 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 64: 4.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak100 µg/m³
Days over the guideline28 days
PM10143 µg/m³
Optical depth1.24
181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,672Every 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 20 August 2023 and 19 September 2023: 31 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 35,020 hectares (350.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavinga (35,113 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,672 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.