Dirico fire, 13 September 2018 Dirico
The fire started on 13 September 2018 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,597 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 403th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 48 in Angola in 2018, of 100.
- Burnt area
- 6,597ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 13 Sept 2018 – 16 Sept 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Sept
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 207
- in a single hotspot: 226 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.0GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,185 ha in 2016, 394 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,289 ha that had burned before.
- 4,019 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 10,748 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 167 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 11,498 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5 ha Dirico fire, September 2017 17,699 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started6,622 ha reached on 13 Sept0.4 %
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 | 33.6 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 14 Sept | 34.0 °C | 9 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Sept | 35.1 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Sept | 36.0 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 17 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 18 Sept after | 36.6 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 19 Sept after | 36.7 °C | 11 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 20 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 22 Sept after | 34.9 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 23 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 24 Sept after | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 25 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 26 Sept after | 36.1 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 207Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dirico fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2018 and 16 September 2018: 4 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 6,597 hectares (66.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (6,622 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.
Report an error
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.