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Saurimo fire, 2 June 2016 Saurimo

Out · last detection 11 Jun 2016, 12:49 UTC

The fire started on 2 June 2016 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,045 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 154th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 79 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area
6,045ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
2 Jun 2016 – 10 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
2 Jun
2016
Heat detections
163
in a single hotspot: 84 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jun 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jun10 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
46km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days 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. Saurimo where it started
    6,069 ha reached on 27 May
    0.3 %

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)
2 Jun 31.2 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Jun 31.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Jun 32.1 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Jun 33.2 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Jun 33.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jun 32.5 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Jun 31.7 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Jun 30.9 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Jun 30.5 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Jun after 31.3 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Jun after 31.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Jun after 32.0 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Jun after 31.4 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Jun after 31.1 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jun after 30.9 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jun after 30.6 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jun after 31.5 °C 15 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jun after 31.8 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Jun after 31.1 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 May 2016
After · 17 Jun 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 · 163Every 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 Saurimo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 June 2016 and 10 June 2016: 9 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 6,045 hectares (60.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Saurimo (6,069 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.