How long did the Xá-Muteba fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 May 2016 and 28 May 2016: 15 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 9,526 hectares (95.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Xá-Muteba (9,591 ha, 0.7 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 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.

AO · Angola · 2016-05-14 → 2016-05-28

Xá-Muteba fire, 14 May 2016 Xá-Muteba

Out · last detection 29 May 2016, 11:53 UTC

The fire started on 14 May 2016 in Xá-Muteba, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,526 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 99th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 31 in Angola in 2016, of 138.

Burnt area: 9,526ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 15days; 14 May 2016 – 28 May 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 14 May; 2016
Heat detections: 519; in a single hotspot: 268 MW
Danger at start: 14; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 6.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 29 May 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 May28 May

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920212223242526272829

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high

41km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Xá-Muteba where it started

9,591 ha reached on 8 May

0.7 %

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)
8 May	31.6 °C	39 %	23 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 14
9 May	32.0 °C	37 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
10 May	32.2 °C	33 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
11 May	32.5 °C	31 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
12 May	32.8 °C	33 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
13 May	32.3 °C	35 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
14 May	32.8 °C	33 %	14 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
15 May	32.8 °C	33 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
16 May	33.7 °C	26 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
17 May	32.7 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 May	32.3 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
19 May	31.7 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
20 May	31.2 °C	27 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
21 May	30.8 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
22 May	30.5 °C	29 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
23 May	31.6 °C	30 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
24 May	32.3 °C	28 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 May	33.2 °C	29 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
26 May	32.5 °C	28 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
27 May	32.3 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
28 May	31.2 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
29 May after	31.8 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 May after	32.1 °C	27 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
31 May after	32.3 °C	29 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
1 Jun after	33.3 °C	28 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
2 Jun after	32.5 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
3 Jun after	30.9 °C	23 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
4 Jun after	32.0 °C	25 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
5 Jun after	33.9 °C	20 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
6 Jun after	33.7 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
7 Jun after	34.0 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
8 Jun after	33.5 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
9 Jun after	32.3 °C	22 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
10 Jun after	31.6 °C	19 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
11 Jun after	32.3 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
12 Jun after	32.4 °C	16 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
13 Jun after	32.8 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
14 Jun after	32.5 °C	18 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 May 2016

After · 4 Jun 2016

Before After

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 · 519Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Angola ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Xá-Muteba fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 May 2016 and 28 May 2016: 15 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 9,526 hectares (95.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Xá-Muteba (9,591 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned