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Saurimo fire, 29 June 2019 Saurimo

Out · last detection 6 Jul 2019, 23:54 UTC

The fire started on 29 June 2019 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,095 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 229th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 197 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
5,095ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
29 Jun 2019 – 6 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
29 Jun
2019
Heat detections
129
in a single hotspot: 71 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jun6 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

29123456

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
45km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,602 ha in 2016, 1,287 ha in 2017, 4,194 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,703 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Saurimo where it started
    5,118 ha reached on 29 Jun
    0.2 %

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)
29 Jun 31.0 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Jun 31.5 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Jul 32.2 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Jul 31.6 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Jul 31.8 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Jul 32.1 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Jul 31.0 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jul 31.3 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Jul after 31.1 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Jul after 30.6 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jul after 31.5 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Jul after 31.3 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Jul after 32.2 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jul after 31.2 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Jul after 29.2 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jul after 31.0 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Jul after 32.0 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Jul after 31.1 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jun 2019
After · 13 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 · 129Every 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 29 June 2019 and 6 July 2019: 8 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 5,095 hectares (51.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Saurimo (5,118 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 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.