Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Saurimo fire, 7 July 2023 Saurimo, Muconda

Out · last detection 14 Jul 2023, 23:11 UTC

The fire started on 7 July 2023 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,106 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 227th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 152 in Angola in 2023, of 158.

Burnt area
5,106ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
7 Jul 2023 – 13 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Jul
2023
Heat detections
185
in a single hotspot: 129 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Jul 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jul13 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314

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
50km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 235 ha in 2016, 2,682 ha in 2017, 994 ha in 2018, 2,577 ha in 2019, 392 ha in 2021, 2,156 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,928 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Saurimo where it started
    5,087 ha reached on 2 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Muconda
    45 ha reached on 12 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)
7 Jul 30.7 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Jul 30.1 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jul 31.4 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Jul 32.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Jul 29.8 °C 17 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Jul 29.9 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Jul 31.5 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Jul after 32.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Jul after 32.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Jul after 32.7 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jul after 31.8 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Jul after 32.4 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Jul after 32.6 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Jul after 33.3 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jul after 32.7 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jul after 33.6 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Jul after 32.9 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jun 2023
After · 20 Jul 2023

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 · 185Every 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 7 July 2023 and 13 July 2023: 7 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 5,106 hectares (51.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saurimo (5,087 ha, 0.2 %); Muconda (45 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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

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.