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Mussende fire, 2 August 2026 Mussende, Quibala

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2026, 13:14 UTC

The fire started on 2 August 2026 in Mussende, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,245 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Cuanza Sul since 2016 (of 79 with a page). Number 206 in Angola in 2026, of 485.

Burnt area
8,245ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
2 Aug 2026 – 19 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
2 Aug
2026
Heat detections
288
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Aug19 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2567891011121314151617181920

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
47km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 121 ha in 2016, 59 ha in 2017, 1,034 ha in 2019, 999 ha in 2020, 355 ha in 2023, 1,543 ha in 2024, 2,456 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,762 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mussende where it started
    6,136 ha reached on 26 Jul
    0.5 %
  2. Quibala
    2,163 ha reached on 26 Jul
    0.2 %

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)
26 Jul 28.5 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Jul 28.5 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Jul 28.0 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jul 27.4 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jul 26.9 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul 28.1 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Aug 27.8 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Aug 28.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Aug 26.9 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Aug 27.6 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Aug 27.8 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Aug 27.7 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Aug 29.0 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Aug 28.6 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug 29.0 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Aug 29.2 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Aug 28.9 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Aug 28.6 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Aug 28.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Aug 28.9 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Aug 29.0 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Aug 28.5 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Aug 29.0 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Aug 29.0 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug 29.7 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Aug after 29.1 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Aug after 27.9 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug after 29.1 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Aug after 29.5 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug after 29.5 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug after 29.1 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Aug after 28.8 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Aug after 30.7 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug after 29.7 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug after 29.6 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Aug after 28.1 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
31 Aug after 26.7 °C 47 % 23 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 17
1 Sept after 30.1 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Sept after 30.6 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Sept after 27.5 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Sept after 27.8 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
5 Sept after 26.9 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jul 2026
After · 26 Aug 2026

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 10 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 316 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 182: 12 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak316 µg/m³
Days over the guideline37 days
PM10323 µg/m³
Optical depth1.93
24252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
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 · 288Every 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 2 August 2026 and 19 August 2026: 18 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 8,245 hectares (82.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mussende (6,136 ha, 0.5 %); Quibala (2,163 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 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.