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Quimbele fire, August 2022 Quimbele

Out · last measured on 3 Aug 2022

The fire started on 1 August 2022 in Quimbele, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,723 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 34th largest in Uíge since 2016 (of 59 with a page). Number 66 in Angola in 2022, of 143.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
6,723ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
1 Aug 2022 – 3 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
1 Aug
2022
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

32°high
32km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,026 ha in 2016, 869 ha in 2017, 2,602 ha in 2018, 2,256 ha in 2020, 859 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,513 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Quimbele where it started
    6,763 ha
    1.0 %

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)
1 Aug 31.7 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Aug 32.3 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Aug 32.1 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Aug after 34.9 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Aug after 31.8 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Aug after 33.2 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Aug after 34.4 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Aug after 34.0 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug after 34.4 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Aug after 34.7 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Aug after 35.3 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Aug after 33.5 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Aug after 31.7 °C 33 % 35 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 · 25 Jul 2022
After · 10 Aug 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Quimbele fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 August 2022 and 3 August 2022: 3 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 6,723 hectares (67.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Quimbele (6,763 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.