Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Saurimo fire, 28 June 2016 Saurimo, Muconda

Out · last detection 12 Jul 2016, 11:27 UTC

The fire started on 28 June 2016 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,487 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 30th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 17 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area
12,487ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
28 Jun 2016 – 11 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Jun
2016
Heat detections
365
in a single hotspot: 468 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
14.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jun11 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2829301256789101112

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
45km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 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
    12,564 ha reached on 22 Jun
    0.5 %
  2. Muconda
    15 ha
    0.0 %

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)
22 Jun 29.5 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Jun 28.8 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Jun 26.7 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Jun 28.1 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jun 28.7 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Jun 29.7 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jun 30.4 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jun 31.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jun 31.0 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Jul 32.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Jul 32.9 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Jul 31.6 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Jul 29.4 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jul 29.7 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Jul 29.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jul 29.1 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Jul 28.9 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Jul 28.0 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Jul 28.4 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Jul 26.4 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jul after 26.9 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Jul after 27.8 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Jul after 28.8 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Jul after 29.1 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jul after 29.5 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jul after 29.5 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jul after 29.5 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Jul after 28.1 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jul after 28.5 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jul after 29.1 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jul after 30.1 °C 16 % 42 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 · 21 Jun 2016
After · 18 Jul 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 · 365Every 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 28 June 2016 and 11 July 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 12,487 hectares (124.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saurimo (12,564 ha, 0.5 %); Muconda (15 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.