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Xá-Muteba fire, 11 June 2026 Xá-Muteba

Out · last detection 10 Jul 2026, 12:40 UTC

The fire started on 11 June 2026 in Xá-Muteba, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,647 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 28th largest in Lunda Norte since 2016 (of 411 with a page). Number 66 in Angola in 2026, of 487.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Xá-Muteba · 2026Xá-Muteba · 2026

Burnt area
17,647ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
11 Jun 2026 – 12 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 Jun
2026
Heat detections
564
in a single hotspot: 127 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
287MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jun12 Jul
10 Jul 2026

How it evolved, day by day

11 Jun 2026 · 129 MW · 10 12 Jun 2026 · 76 MW · 12 13 Jun 2026 · 393 MW · 30 14 Jun 2026 · 206 MW · 28 15 Jun 2026 · 96 MW · 13 16 Jun 2026 · 7 MW · 3 17 Jun 2026 · 18 MW · 3 18 Jun 2026 · 68 MW · 3 19 Jun 2026 · 15 MW · 4 20 Jun 2026 · 379 MW · 23 21 Jun 2026 · 242 MW · 23 22 Jun 2026 · 76 MW · 8 23 Jun 2026 · 323 MW · 23 24 Jun 2026 · 125 MW · 19 25 Jun 2026 · 160 MW · 23 26 Jun 2026 · 560 MW · 18 27 Jun 2026 · 459 MW · 26 28 Jun 2026 · 255 MW · 18 29 Jun 2026 · 680 MW · 36 30 Jun 2026 · 298 MW · 32 1 Jul 2026 · 384 MW · 18 2 Jul 2026 · 141 MW · 21 3 Jul 2026 · 269 MW · 14 4 Jul 2026 · 868 MW · 37 5 Jul 2026 · 1,077 MW · 44 6 Jul 2026 · 247 MW · 24 7 Jul 2026 · 245 MW · 14 8 Jul 2026 · 148 MW · 7 9 Jul 2026 · 390 MW · 18 10 Jul 2026 · 264 MW · 12
11 Jun 16 Jun 21 Jun 26 Jun 1 Jul 5 Jul 6 Jul

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
42km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,571 ha in 2016, 1,746 ha in 2017, 3,229 ha in 2018, 1,665 ha in 2019, 2,298 ha in 2020, 2,278 ha in 2021, 511 ha in 2022, 3,519 ha in 2023, 4,316 ha in 2024, 4,083 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,801 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 11% of the area of London (176 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Xá-Muteba where it started
    17,761 ha reached on 11 Jun
    1.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area1.5 ha
Residents≈ 150

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.5 hectares of built-up land and about 150 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
11 Jun 32.8 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Jun 32.4 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Jun 30.4 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Jun 31.0 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Jun 30.9 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Jun 31.6 °C 30 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Jun 31.9 °C 30 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jun 30.3 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Jun 29.6 °C 45 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Jun 31.9 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
21 Jun 31.7 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
22 Jun 31.1 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Jun 31.4 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Jun 31.6 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Jun 31.1 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Jun 31.2 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Jun 31.7 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Jun 30.7 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Jun 31.8 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Jun 31.8 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Jul 31.9 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Jul 32.6 °C 26 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Jul 31.9 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Jul 32.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Jul 32.3 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Jul 31.6 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Jul 31.3 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Jul 30.6 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Jul 31.1 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Jul 31.3 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 Jul 31.5 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Jul 32.3 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Jul after 32.3 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Jul after 32.8 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Jul after 32.3 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jul after 30.1 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Jul after 29.5 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jul after 30.2 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Jul after 31.7 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Jul after 30.2 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Jul after 31.0 °C 31 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Jul after 33.3 °C 19 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jun 2026
After · 19 Jul 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 27 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 130 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 83: 5.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak130 µg/m³
Days over the guideline30 days
PM10132 µg/m³
Optical depth0.99
161718192021222324252627282930123456789101112131415
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 · 564Every 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 Xá-Muteba fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 June 2026 to 12 July 2026 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 June 2026 to 12 July 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 17,647 hectares (176.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Xá-Muteba (17,761 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 42 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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 18 June 2026 → 11 June 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 June 2026 to 12 July 2026. 564 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.