Saurimo fire, 10 June 2024 Saurimo
The fire started on 10 June 2024 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,169 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 98th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 65 in Angola in 2024, of 135.
- Burnt area
- 7,169ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 10 Jun 2024 – 14 Jun 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 10 Jun
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 178
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,852 ha in 2016, 3,694 ha in 2017, 4,085 ha in 2018, 1,440 ha in 2019, 3,081 ha in 2020, 3,665 ha in 2021, 6,448 ha in 2022, 2,227 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,215 ha that had burned before.
- 5,492 ha Saurimo fire, June 2022 16,191 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,949 ha Saurimo fire, June 2016 6,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,066 ha Saurimo fire, June 2018 6,540 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 99 ha Saurimo fire, July 2017 22,834 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Saurimo where it started7,197 ha reached on 6 Jun0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Jun | 29.5 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Jun | 28.8 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Jun | 30.4 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Jun | 31.1 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Jun | 30.8 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Jun after | 30.2 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Jun after | 29.7 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Jun after | 30.8 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Jun after | 30.9 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Jun after | 31.9 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 Jun after | 32.1 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Jun after | 33.0 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Jun after | 33.0 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Jun after | 31.5 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Jun after | 31.1 °C | 26 % | 38 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.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 17 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 73 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 178Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,191 haSaurimo24 June 2022 · 10 days · 4 km away
- 22,834 haSaurimo15 July 2017 · 12 days · 10 km away
- 13,767 haSaurimo23 June 2022 · 11 days · 19 km away
- 15,771 haSaurimo2 July 2018 · 22 days · 24 km away
- 21,790 haSaurimo22 June 2020 · 12 days · 26 km away
- 12,320 haSaurimo23 June 2016 · 7 days · 26 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Saurimo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 June 2024 and 14 June 2024: 5 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 7,169 hectares (71.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Saurimo (7,197 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.
Report an error
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.