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Nancova fire, 19 July 2019 Nancova

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2019, 12:59 UTC

The fire started on 19 July 2019 in Nancova, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 45 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,184 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 20th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 660 with a page). Number 6 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Nancova · 2017Nancova · 2017Nancova · 2023Nancova · 2021

Burnt area
29,184ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
45days
19 Jul 2019 – 1 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
19 Jul
2019
Heat detections
1,290
in a single hotspot: 233 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
292MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jul1 Sept
2 Sept 2019

How it evolved, day by day

19 Jul 2019 · 29 MW · 4 20 Jul 2019 · 6 MW · 1 21 Jul 2019 · 35 MW · 2 22 Jul 2019 · 8 MW · 2 24 Jul 2019 · 56 MW · 10 25 Jul 2019 · 31 MW · 4 26 Jul 2019 · 86 MW · 10 27 Jul 2019 · 23 MW · 4 28 Jul 2019 · 136 MW · 11 29 Jul 2019 · 126 MW · 18 30 Jul 2019 · 46 MW · 8 31 Jul 2019 · 100 MW · 16 1 Aug 2019 · 76 MW · 20 2 Aug 2019 · 149 MW · 45 3 Aug 2019 · 390 MW · 55 4 Aug 2019 · 257 MW · 29 5 Aug 2019 · 82 MW · 12 6 Aug 2019 · 2 MW · 1 7 Aug 2019 · 481 MW · 35 8 Aug 2019 · 206 MW · 43 9 Aug 2019 · 234 MW · 29 10 Aug 2019 · 107 MW · 14 11 Aug 2019 · 392 MW · 37 12 Aug 2019 · 179 MW · 29 13 Aug 2019 · 124 MW · 39 14 Aug 2019 · 219 MW · 41 15 Aug 2019 · 333 MW · 37 16 Aug 2019 · 168 MW · 18 17 Aug 2019 · 361 MW · 61 18 Aug 2019 · 390 MW · 61 19 Aug 2019 · 689 MW · 66 20 Aug 2019 · 461 MW · 38 21 Aug 2019 · 291 MW · 48 22 Aug 2019 · 853 MW · 46 23 Aug 2019 · 197 MW · 34 24 Aug 2019 · 234 MW · 30 25 Aug 2019 · 214 MW · 30 26 Aug 2019 · 485 MW · 30 27 Aug 2019 · 4,434 MW · 195 28 Aug 2019 · 212 MW · 27 29 Aug 2019 · 36 MW · 20 30 Aug 2019 · 111 MW · 10 31 Aug 2019 · 15 MW · 4 1 Sept 2019 · 83 MW · 11 2 Sept 2019 · 7 MW · 5
19 Jul 27 Jul 3 Aug 10 Aug 17 Aug 24 Aug 27 Aug 31 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
60km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,381 ha in 2016, 10,293 ha in 2017, 35 ha in 2018.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 18% of the area of London (292 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. Nancova where it started
    29,309 ha reached on 19 Jul
    2.8 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
19 Jul 28.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Jul 28.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Jul 29.0 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Jul 29.3 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Jul 29.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Jul 29.9 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Jul 29.8 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Jul 29.7 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Jul 29.2 °C 7 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Jul 28.7 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Jul 30.0 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Jul 30.1 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Jul 30.6 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Aug 30.4 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Aug 30.8 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Aug 32.0 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Aug 31.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Aug 32.1 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Aug 31.0 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Aug 33.4 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Aug 32.6 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Aug 33.6 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Aug 32.4 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Aug 31.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Aug 32.3 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Aug 32.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Aug 32.2 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Aug 31.5 °C 10 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
16 Aug 28.4 °C 14 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
17 Aug 28.4 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Aug 29.9 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Aug 29.3 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Aug 28.5 °C 10 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
21 Aug 29.0 °C 9 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
22 Aug 27.5 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Aug 27.5 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Aug 27.6 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Aug 29.1 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Aug 30.0 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Aug 32.1 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Aug 33.5 °C 5 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Aug 34.6 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Aug 35.1 °C 10 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Aug 33.9 °C 6 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Sept 31.6 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
2 Sept after 33.2 °C 6 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
3 Sept after 34.0 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
4 Sept after 34.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
5 Sept after 35.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Sept after 36.2 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
7 Sept after 34.0 °C 11 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
8 Sept after 28.8 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
9 Sept after 28.4 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Sept after 30.2 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Sept after 31.9 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jul 2019
After · 8 Sept 2019

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 · 1,290Every 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 Nancova fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 July 2019 to 1 September 2019 (45 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 July 2019 to 28 August 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 29,184 hectares (291.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nancova (29,309 ha, 2.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 28 August 2019 → 1 September 2019.
  2. Start date: 24 July 2019 → 19 July 2019.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 July 2019 to 28 August 2019. 1,290 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 2020, 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.