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Saurimo fire, 26 June 2018 Saurimo, Cambulo

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2018, 11:58 UTC

The fire started on 26 June 2018 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,771 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 3 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Saurimo · 2016Saurimo · 2020Saurimo · 2026Saurimo · 2022

Burnt area
15,771ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
31days
26 Jun 2018 – 26 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Jun
2018
Heat detections
636
in a single hotspot: 209 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Average daily power
247MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jun26 Jul
27 Jul 2018

How it evolved, day by day

26 Jun 2018 · 67 MW · 8 28 Jun 2018 · 180 MW · 13 29 Jun 2018 · 89 MW · 23 30 Jun 2018 · 321 MW · 30 1 Jul 2018 · 60 MW · 5 2 Jul 2018 · 11 MW · 3 3 Jul 2018 · 97 MW · 18 4 Jul 2018 · 597 MW · 70 5 Jul 2018 · 3,304 MW · 131 6 Jul 2018 · 635 MW · 66 7 Jul 2018 · 267 MW · 36 8 Jul 2018 · 264 MW · 33 9 Jul 2018 · 69 MW · 18 10 Jul 2018 · 66 MW · 7 11 Jul 2018 · 101 MW · 15 12 Jul 2018 · 224 MW · 21 13 Jul 2018 · 94 MW · 22 14 Jul 2018 · 38 MW · 15 15 Jul 2018 · 5 MW · 1 16 Jul 2018 · 287 MW · 29 17 Jul 2018 · 58 MW · 10 19 Jul 2018 · 0 MW · 1 20 Jul 2018 · 10 MW · 3 21 Jul 2018 · 134 MW · 17 22 Jul 2018 · 69 MW · 9 24 Jul 2018 · 26 MW · 11 25 Jul 2018 · 41 MW · 14 26 Jul 2018 · 23 MW · 6 27 Jul 2018 · 16 MW · 1
26 Jun 2 Jul 5 Jul 7 Jul 12 Jul 17 Jul 24 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
47km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,874 ha in 2016, 7,273 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,765 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 10% of the area of London (158 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Saurimo where it started
    14,115 ha reached on 26 Jun
    0.6 %
  2. Cambulo
    1,699 ha reached on 28 Jun
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)
26 Jun 31.0 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Jun 31.8 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Jun 30.8 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jun 30.7 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jun 31.2 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Jul 30.8 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Jul 31.8 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Jul 30.4 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Jul 30.6 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Jul 30.8 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Jul 29.6 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jul 30.1 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jul 30.4 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Jul 31.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Jul 31.1 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jul 31.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Jul 32.2 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Jul 31.6 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Jul 31.9 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Jul 32.2 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Jul 31.8 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jul 30.2 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Jul 28.9 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Jul 30.3 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Jul 31.2 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jul 31.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Jul 32.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Jul 32.4 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jul 30.6 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Jul 30.0 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Jul 31.2 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Jul after 32.1 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jul after 31.9 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul after 32.0 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jul after 32.4 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Jul after 31.7 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug after 30.0 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Aug after 30.8 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Aug after 31.4 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Aug after 32.6 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Aug after 33.5 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jun 2018
After · 2 Aug 2018

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 · 636Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 June 2018 to 26 July 2018 (31 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 July 2018 to 23 July 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 15,771 hectares (157.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saurimo (14,115 ha, 0.6 %); Cambulo (1,699 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 23 July 2018 → 26 July 2018.
  2. Start date: 2 July 2018 → 26 June 2018.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 2 July 2018 to 23 July 2018. 636 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.