Mavinga fire, 19 August 2024 Mavinga
The fire started on 19 August 2024 in Mavinga, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,870 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 67th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 9 in Angola in 2024, of 135.
- Burnt area
- 16,870ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 19 Aug 2024 – 1 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 635
- in a single hotspot: 428 MW
- Danger at start
- 62
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.4GW
- 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
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,788 ha in 2016, 23 ha in 2017, 6,678 ha in 2018, 4,352 ha in 2019, 9,009 ha in 2021, 68 ha in 2022, 1,138 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,951 ha that had burned before.
- 7,468 ha Mavinga fire, August 2021 23,630 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,136 ha Mavinga fire, September 2018 12,634 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,695 ha Mavinga fire, August 2016 21,075 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,914 ha Mavinga fire, September 2019 6,167 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 755 ha Mavinga fire, August 2023 28,469 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 66 ha Mavinga fire, August 2022 6,841 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Mavinga fire, October 2022 5,580 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mavinga where it started17,007 ha reached on 19 Aug0.4 %
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 | 31.4 °C | 7 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 20 Aug | 31.6 °C | 8 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 21 Aug | 31.0 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 22 Aug | 31.0 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 23 Aug | 31.2 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 24 Aug | 30.2 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 25 Aug | 30.4 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 26 Aug | 31.4 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Aug | 32.5 °C | 7 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 28 Aug | 33.5 °C | 5 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 29 Aug | 34.2 °C | 6 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Aug | 34.0 °C | 8 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 31 Aug | 31.9 °C | 19 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 1 Sept | 29.7 °C | 13 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 2 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 3 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 9 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 4 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 5 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 7 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 Sept after | 34.4 °C | 6 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 9 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 6 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 10 Sept after | 35.9 °C | 9 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 11 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 12 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 12 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 13 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 13 Sept after | 36.4 °C | 13 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 14 Sept after | 37.1 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 15 Sept after | 37.9 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 17 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 635Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 43,374 haMavinga26 August 2026 · 24 days · 5 km away
- 23,630 haMavinga25 August 2021 · 15 days · 5 km away
- 21,075 haMavinga1 August 2016 · 8 days · 9 km away
- 28,469 haMavinga15 August 2023 · 28 days · 15 km away
- 26,945 haMavinga9 September 2025 · 21 days · 17 km away
- 16,207 haMavinga12 July 2019 · 25 days · 22 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mavinga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2024 and 1 September 2024: 14 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 16,870 hectares (168.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mavinga (17,007 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.