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Dirico fire, 11 August 2017 Dirico, Rivungo

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2017, 11:31 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2017 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,455 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 100th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 20 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
13,455ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
11 Aug 2017 – 20 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
11 Aug
2017
Heat detections
420
in a single hotspot: 171 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
8.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
38km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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

  1. Dirico where it started
    13,227 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.7 %
  2. Rivungo
    317 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
11 Aug 26.2 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug 27.2 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Aug 28.1 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Aug 28.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Aug 28.1 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Aug 29.6 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Aug 27.8 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Aug 23.7 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Aug 27.8 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Aug 28.6 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Aug after 29.0 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug after 29.5 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Aug after 30.4 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug after 32.3 °C 10 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Aug after 32.9 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Aug after 32.9 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Aug after 32.9 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Aug after 31.5 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Aug after 31.1 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Aug after 31.9 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Aug 2017
After · 27 Aug 2017

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 · 420Every 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 Dirico fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 August 2017 and 20 August 2017: 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 13,455 hectares (134.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dirico (13,227 ha, 0.7 %); Rivungo (317 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.