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Rivungo fire, 7 September 2017 Rivungo

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2017, 23:31 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2017 in Rivungo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,042 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). The largest in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
36,042ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
7 Sept 2017 – 29 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
7 Sept
2017
Heat detections
1,384
in a single hotspot: 207 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
13.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept29 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
50km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 6 Oct.

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,129 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Rivungo where it started
    36,351 ha reached on 7 Sept
    1.3 %

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)
7 Sept 32.7 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Sept 33.7 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Sept 33.4 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Sept 33.9 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Sept 33.4 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Sept 33.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 33.8 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Sept 34.6 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Sept 34.6 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept 35.3 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept 35.2 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Sept 36.7 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Sept 36.2 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Sept 35.8 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Sept 34.7 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
22 Sept 34.9 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Sept 35.6 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Sept 35.9 °C 11 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
25 Sept 36.2 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Sept 36.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Sept 35.9 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Sept 36.4 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
29 Sept 33.0 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Sept after 33.8 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Oct after 34.3 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Oct after 34.6 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Oct after 36.3 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Oct after 37.0 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Oct after 34.8 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 49
6 Oct after 26.5 °C 40 % 36 km/h 1.0 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Aug 2017
After · 6 Oct 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 · 1,384Every 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 Rivungo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2017 and 29 September 2017: 23 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 36,042 hectares (360.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rivungo (36,351 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.

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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.