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Dirico fire, 13 September 2017 Dirico

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2017 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,307 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 267th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 47 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
8,307ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
13 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Sept
2017
Heat detections
369
in a single hotspot: 107 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718192021222324252627

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
48km/h · peak gust
9%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
    8,354 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
13 Sept 33.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept 34.6 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Sept 34.7 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Sept 35.3 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept 35.8 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Sept 36.8 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Sept 36.2 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Sept 35.9 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Sept 34.9 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
22 Sept 34.9 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Sept 35.7 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Sept 36.2 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
25 Sept 36.5 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Sept 36.7 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Sept 35.1 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Sept after 36.0 °C 14 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
29 Sept after 32.7 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Sept after 33.7 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Oct after 34.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 44
2 Oct after 34.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Oct after 36.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Oct after 37.2 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Oct after 34.2 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Oct after 28.9 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Oct after 32.9 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2017
After · 4 Oct 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 · 369Every 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 13 September 2017 and 27 September 2017: 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 8,307 hectares (83.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (8,354 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.