Saurimo fire, 21 August 2025 Saurimo, Muconda
The fire started on 21 August 2025 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,165 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 218th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 176 in Angola in 2025, of 191.
- Burnt area
- 5,165ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 21 Aug 2025 – 27 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 142
- in a single hotspot: 229 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.0GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,627 ha in 2016, 874 ha in 2017, 2,113 ha in 2018, 2,341 ha in 2019, 2,140 ha in 2020, 1,367 ha in 2022, 3,359 ha in 2023, 1,954 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,181 ha that had burned before.
- 1,615 ha Saurimo fire, July 2023 6,035 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,549 ha Saurimo fire, July 2016 5,027 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 771 ha Muconda fire, July 2020 11,513 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 539 ha Saurimo fire, July 2016 5,353 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 233 ha Muconda fire, August 2017 6,032 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 108 ha Muconda fire, July 2017 7,922 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 40 ha Muconda fire, July 2019 5,630 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Saurimo where it started4,868 ha reached on 21 Aug0.2 %
-
338 ha reached on 21 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug | 30.1 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Aug | 31.0 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Aug | 31.9 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Aug | 31.5 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Aug | 28.9 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Aug | 31.2 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 27 Aug | 30.9 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Aug after | 33.4 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Aug after | 32.5 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Sept after | 31.9 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 15 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 3 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Sept after | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 6 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 27 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 90 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 71: 4.8 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 · 142Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,513 haMuconda15 July 2020 · 11 days · 7 km away
- 47,992 haMuconda27 July 2026 · 40 days · 21 km away
- 11,970 haMuconda21 August 2026 · 13 days · 25 km away
- 11,554 haSaurimo13 August 2026 · 17 days · 26 km away
- 12,487 haSaurimo28 June 2016 · 14 days · 33 km away
- 12,753 haMuconda29 July 2026 · 6 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Saurimo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 August 2025 and 27 August 2025: 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 5,165 hectares (51.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saurimo (4,868 ha, 0.2 %); Muconda (338 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.