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Quela fire, June 2017 Quela

Out · last detection 6 Jul 2017, 12:36 UTC

The fire started on 24 June 2017 in Quela, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,703 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 47th largest in Malanje since 2016 (of 127 with a page). Number 80 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
6,703ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
24 Jun 2017 – 6 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
24 Jun
2017
Heat detections
180
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jun6 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

242526272829301356

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
40km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,885 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Quela where it started
    6,740 ha reached on 22 Jun
    1.4 %

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)
24 Jun 31.7 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Jun 32.2 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jun 32.4 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jun 33.3 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Jun 32.7 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jun 30.9 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jun 32.4 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Jul 33.7 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Jul 33.1 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Jul 32.8 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Jul 31.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jul 31.6 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Jul 30.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jul after 30.6 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jul after 30.5 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Jul after 33.4 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Jul after 31.8 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Jul after 30.0 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Jul after 30.6 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Jul after 31.1 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Jul after 31.0 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Jul after 31.0 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Jul after 30.1 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jun 2017
After · 13 Jul 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 · 180Every 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 Quela fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 June 2017 and 6 July 2017: 13 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 6,703 hectares (67.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Quela (6,740 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 40 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.