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Muconda fire, 3 August 2017 Muconda

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2017, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 3 August 2017 in Muconda, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,302 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 24th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 21 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
13,302ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
3 Aug 2017 – 14 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
3 Aug
2017
Heat detections
462
in a single hotspot: 526 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
19.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

3456789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
42km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,698 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Muconda where it started
    13,400 ha reached on 2 Aug
    0.5 %

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)
2 Aug 31.2 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Aug 31.7 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Aug 32.1 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Aug 32.6 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Aug 31.9 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Aug 31.4 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Aug 31.5 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Aug 30.5 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Aug 29.5 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Aug 30.4 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Aug 31.2 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Aug 31.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Aug 31.9 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Aug after 31.8 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Aug after 32.1 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Aug after 32.7 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Aug after 31.4 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Aug after 32.6 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Aug after 31.4 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Aug after 31.7 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Aug after 32.4 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Aug after 32.8 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Aug after 34.9 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Aug after 34.6 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Aug after 34.9 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Aug after 31.9 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Aug after 32.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Jul 2017
After · 21 Aug 2017

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 · 462Every 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 Muconda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 August 2017 and 14 August 2017: 12 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 13,302 hectares (133.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Muconda (13,400 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.