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Saurimo fire, 26 June 2019 Saurimo, Lucapa

Out · last detection 13 Jul 2019, 12:17 UTC

The fire started on 26 June 2019 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,559 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 28th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 37 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
12,559ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
26 Jun 2019 – 12 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Jun
2019
Heat detections
539
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jun12 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

262728293012345678910111213

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
43km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,686 ha in 2016, 5,114 ha in 2017, 7,155 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,534 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Saurimo where it started
    10,729 ha reached on 19 Jun
    0.4 %
  2. Lucapa
    1,890 ha reached on 19 Jun
    0.1 %

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)
19 Jun 30.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Jun 31.1 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Jun 31.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jun 30.0 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Jun 30.8 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Jun 31.4 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Jun 32.0 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Jun 31.9 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Jun 32.2 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Jun 31.4 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jun 31.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Jun 31.6 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Jul 32.4 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Jul 31.8 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Jul 32.0 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Jul 32.6 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Jul 31.4 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Jul 31.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jul 31.6 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Jul 31.1 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jul 31.9 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Jul 31.7 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Jul 32.5 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jul 31.4 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Jul after 29.1 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Jul after 30.6 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Jul after 32.6 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Jul after 31.5 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jul after 31.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Jul after 31.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Jul after 31.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jul after 31.8 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Jul after 31.7 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Jul after 31.4 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Jul after 31.5 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Jul after 31.6 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Jul after 32.7 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Jul after 32.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jul after 31.8 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Jul after 31.7 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jun 2019
After · 19 Jul 2019

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 · 539Every 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 26 June 2019 and 12 July 2019: 17 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 12,559 hectares (125.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saurimo (10,729 ha, 0.4 %); Lucapa (1,890 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.