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Dirico fire, 14 September 2018 Dirico

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2018, 23:44 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2018 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,098 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 21th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). The largest in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
29,098ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
14 Sept 2018 – 26 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Sept
2018
Heat detections
1,284
in a single hotspot: 206 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
22.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
45km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,646 ha in 2016, 5,594 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,861 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    29,247 ha reached on 14 Sept
    1.6 %

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)
14 Sept 34.5 °C 6 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Sept 35.8 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept 36.7 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Sept 36.3 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Sept 37.3 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Sept 37.6 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Sept 34.8 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Sept 35.6 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
22 Sept 35.3 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Sept 35.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Sept 35.8 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Sept 36.1 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Sept 36.2 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 50
27 Sept after 36.3 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 55
28 Sept after 36.8 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Sept after 35.9 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
30 Sept after 34.2 °C 17 % 55 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 64
1 Oct after 32.4 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 54
2 Oct after 33.2 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Oct after 34.4 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Oct after 35.5 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Oct after 35.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Oct after 35.8 °C 12 % 40 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 · 7 Sept 2018
After · 3 Oct 2018

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 · 1,284Every 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 14 September 2018 and 26 September 2018: 13 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 29,098 hectares (291.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (29,247 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.