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Saurimo fire, 21 July 2016 Saurimo, Muconda

Out · last detection 24 Jul 2016, 12:42 UTC

The fire started on 21 July 2016 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,027 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 236th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 135 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area
5,027ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
21 Jul 2016 – 24 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
21 Jul
2016
Heat detections
140
in a single hotspot: 200 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jul24 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

212224

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
43km/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. Saurimo where it started
    4,090 ha reached on 21 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Muconda
    975 ha reached on 22 Jul
    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)
21 Jul 28.2 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Jul 29.1 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jul 29.7 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Jul 31.1 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Jul after 30.9 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jul after 30.8 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Jul after 30.6 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jul after 31.0 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jul after 33.4 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Jul after 33.3 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Jul after 32.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Aug after 31.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Aug after 31.4 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Aug after 31.5 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jul 2016
After · 31 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 · 140Every 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 21 July 2016 and 24 July 2016: 4 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 5,027 hectares (50.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saurimo (4,090 ha, 0.2 %); Muconda (975 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.