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Dirico fire, 4 September 2017 Dirico

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

The fire started on 4 September 2017 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,699 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 58th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 9 in Angola in 2017, of 158.

Burnt area
17,699ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
4 Sept 2017 – 18 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
4 Sept
2017
Heat detections
516
in a single hotspot: 420 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
8.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112131415161718

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
45km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,798 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    17,771 ha reached on 4 Sept
    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)
4 Sept 30.1 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Sept 31.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Sept 33.1 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Sept 33.1 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept 33.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Sept 33.4 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Sept 33.8 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Sept 33.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Sept 33.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Sept 33.6 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept 34.6 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Sept 34.3 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Sept 34.9 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept 35.5 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Sept 36.6 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Sept after 35.9 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Sept after 35.8 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Sept after 34.8 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 Sept after 34.7 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Sept after 35.3 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
24 Sept after 35.9 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
25 Sept after 36.1 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Sept after 36.2 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept after 34.6 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Sept after 35.6 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2017
After · 25 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 · 516Every 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 4 September 2017 and 18 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 17,699 hectares (177.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (17,771 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.