Saurimo fire, 17 August 2026 Saurimo, Muconda
The fire started on 17 August 2026 in Saurimo, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,323 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 203th largest in Lunda Sul since 2016 (of 240 with a page). Number 440 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
- Burnt area
- 5,323ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 17 Aug 2026 – 20 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 50
- in a single hotspot: 169 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,931 ha in 2016, 3,178 ha in 2017, 3,113 ha in 2018, 205 ha in 2019, 2,890 ha in 2020, 2,519 ha in 2021, 180 ha in 2022, 1,037 ha in 2023, 689 ha in 2024, 2,168 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,246 ha that had burned before.
- 2,890 ha Saurimo fire, July 2020 6,810 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,802 ha Saurimo fire, June 2016 12,487 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,110 ha Saurimo fire, July 2025 5,239 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 332 ha Muconda fire, July 2021 9,438 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Saurimo where it started5,215 ha reached on 17 Aug0.2 %
-
147 ha reached on 19 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Aug | 30.2 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Aug | 30.9 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Aug | 31.2 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Aug | 30.8 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Aug after | 31.2 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Aug after | 34.0 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 29 Aug after | 31.2 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 31 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 29 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
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 21 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 174 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 100: 6.6 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 · 50Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,487 haSaurimo28 June 2016 · 14 days · 9 km away
- 47,992 haMuconda29 July 2026 · 34 days · 10 km away
- 11,554 haSaurimo13 August 2026 · 17 days · 14 km away
- 9,636 haMuconda10 July 2020 · 9 days · 18 km away
- 11,513 haMuconda15 July 2020 · 11 days · 29 km away
- 9,737 haMuconda5 August 2017 · 11 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Saurimo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2026 and 20 August 2026: 4 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 5,323 hectares (53.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saurimo (5,215 ha, 0.2 %); Muconda (147 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 38 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.