Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Quibala fire, 30 July 2026 Quibala

Out · last detection 8 Aug 2026, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 30 July 2026 in Quibala, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,557 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 62th largest in Cuanza Sul since 2016 (of 79 with a page). Number 401 in Angola in 2026, of 485.

Burnt area
5,557ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
30 Jul 2026 – 8 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Jul
2026
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 56 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
511MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul8 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

311235678

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
51km/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

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 343 ha in 2017, 1,165 ha in 2019, 102 ha in 2020, 264 ha in 2021, 397 ha in 2022, 66 ha in 2023, 284 ha in 2024, 280 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,136 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Quibala where it started
    5,587 ha reached on 23 Jul
    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)
23 Jul 29.1 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jul 28.4 °C 16 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jul 28.4 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Jul 28.0 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Jul 27.8 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jul 27.5 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul 26.9 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jul 26.5 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Jul 27.7 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Aug 27.3 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Aug 27.3 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug 26.3 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Aug 26.7 °C 31 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Aug 27.2 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Aug 27.0 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Aug 28.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Aug 28.2 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Aug after 28.5 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Aug after 28.8 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Aug after 28.5 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Aug after 28.1 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Aug after 28.6 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Aug after 28.5 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Aug after 28.7 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Aug after 28.2 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Aug after 28.7 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Aug after 28.8 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug after 29.5 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Aug after 28.8 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Aug after 27.5 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug after 28.6 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Aug after 29.0 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Aug after 29.2 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Aug after 28.6 °C 25 % 36 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 · 23 Jul 2026
After · 15 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 26 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 346 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 181: 12 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak346 µg/m³
Days over the guideline29 days
PM10354 µg/m³
Optical depth1.86
2122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718
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 · 105Every 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 Quibala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 July 2026 and 8 August 2026: 10 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 5,557 hectares (55.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Quibala (5,587 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 51 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.