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Saurimo fire, 11 August 2026 Saurimo

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2026, 00:37 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2026 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,672 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 126th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 292 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Burnt area
6,672ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
11 Aug 2026 – 20 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 Aug
2026
Heat detections
175
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

111214151617181920

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
39km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,740 ha in 2016, 1,118 ha in 2017, 973 ha in 2018, 682 ha in 2019, 3,585 ha in 2020, 3,351 ha in 2022, 1,209 ha in 2023, 1,162 ha in 2024, 1,191 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,934 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Saurimo where it started
    6,702 ha reached on 7 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
7 Aug 32.5 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Aug 32.2 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug 32.4 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Aug 33.4 °C 22 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Aug 32.3 °C 24 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Aug 32.2 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Aug 32.6 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Aug 32.8 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Aug 32.6 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Aug 32.4 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Aug 32.4 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug 33.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Aug 33.3 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Aug 32.2 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Aug after 31.4 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug after 33.0 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Aug after 33.6 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Aug after 34.3 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Aug after 33.5 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Aug after 31.0 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Aug after 34.0 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Aug after 33.4 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Aug after 31.3 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug after 32.6 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Aug 2026
After · 27 Aug 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 22 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 136 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 105: 7.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak136 µg/m³
Days over the guideline19 days
PM10145 µg/m³
Optical depth2.15
567891011121314151617181920212223
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 175Every 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 11 August 2026 and 20 August 2026: 10 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 6,672 hectares (66.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Saurimo (6,702 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.