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Mussende fire, 15 June 2017 Mussende

Out · last detection 24 Jun 2017, 13:00 UTC

The fire started on 15 June 2017 in Mussende, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,995 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 54th largest in Cuanza Sul since 2016 (of 79 with a page). Number 100 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
5,995ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
15 Jun 2017 – 23 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
15 Jun
2017
Heat detections
211
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jun23 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
48km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mussende where it started
    6,028 ha reached on 12 Jun
    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)
15 Jun 29.9 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Jun 30.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Jun 28.8 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Jun 29.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Jun 29.4 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Jun 28.5 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Jun 27.8 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Jun 29.0 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Jun 27.7 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Jun after 28.7 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Jun after 29.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jun after 29.4 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jun after 29.4 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jun after 28.8 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jun after 27.1 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Jun after 28.7 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Jul after 29.8 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Jul after 29.4 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Jul after 29.1 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jun 2017
After · 30 Jun 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 · 211Every 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 Mussende fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 June 2017 and 23 June 2017: 9 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 5,995 hectares (60.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mussende (6,028 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.