Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Rivungo fire, 20 July 2016 Rivungo

Out · last detection 3 Aug 2016, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2016 in Rivungo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,199 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 613th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 124 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area
5,199ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
20 Jul 2016 – 2 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Jul
2016
Heat detections
204
in a single hotspot: 159 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul2 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425262728293031123

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
40km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Rivungo where it started
    2,894 ha reached on 13 Jul
    0.1 %

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)
20 Jul 24.1 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Jul 24.7 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Jul 25.9 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Jul 26.9 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jul 27.8 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Jul 29.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jul 28.8 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jul 29.8 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jul 30.8 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jul 31.1 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Jul 31.2 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Jul 31.3 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Aug 31.3 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Aug 30.1 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Aug after 30.3 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Aug after 27.1 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Aug after 27.9 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Aug after 27.4 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Aug after 27.3 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Aug after 27.3 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Aug after 27.7 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Aug after 27.9 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Aug after 28.1 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Aug after 28.3 °C 20 % 27 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 · 13 Jul 2016
After · 9 Aug 2016

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 · 204Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Rivungo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 July 2016 and 2 August 2016: 14 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 5,199 hectares (52.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rivungo (2,894 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class 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

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.