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AO · Angola · →

Dirico fire, 31 August 2017 Dirico

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2017, 23:56 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2017 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,657 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 69th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 12 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
16,657ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
31 Aug 2017 – 17 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Aug
2017
Heat detections
648
in a single hotspot: 101 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
13.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3112345678910111215161718

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
46km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,973 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    16,743 ha reached on 30 Aug
    0.9 %

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)
30 Aug 32.7 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Aug 32.2 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Sept 33.2 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Sept 33.8 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Sept 31.1 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Sept 30.2 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Sept 31.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Sept 33.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Sept 33.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Sept 33.9 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Sept 33.8 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Sept 34.2 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Sept 34.0 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Sept 33.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept 34.0 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Sept 35.1 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
15 Sept 34.7 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Sept 35.6 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Sept 36.2 °C 7 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Sept after 37.1 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Sept after 36.5 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Sept after 36.1 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Sept after 35.2 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Sept after 35.1 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Sept after 35.7 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Sept after 36.4 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Sept after 36.7 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Sept after 36.5 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Sept after 34.8 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Sept after 36.2 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Sept after 32.5 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2017
After · 24 Sept 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 · 648Every 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 31 August 2017 and 17 September 2017: 18 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 16,657 hectares (166.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (16,743 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, class Extreme.
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.