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AO · Angola · →

Dirico fire, 26 September 2018 Dirico

Out · last detection 14 Oct 2018, 12:15 UTC

The fire started on 26 September 2018 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,259 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 80th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 4 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
15,259ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
26 Sept 2018 – 14 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
26 Sept
2018
Heat detections
606
in a single hotspot: 200 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Sept14 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

26272829301234567891011121314

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
55km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,233 ha in 2016, 1,106 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    15,348 ha reached on 20 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
20 Sept 34.4 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Sept 35.2 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Sept 35.1 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Sept 34.9 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Sept 35.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Sept 35.6 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Sept 36.2 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Sept 36.0 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Sept 36.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 52
29 Sept 35.6 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Sept 33.9 °C 18 % 55 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 64
1 Oct 32.1 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 54
2 Oct 32.8 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Oct 33.9 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Oct 35.0 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Oct 35.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Oct 35.3 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Oct 34.4 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Oct 32.9 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Oct 33.0 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Oct 33.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Oct 34.7 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Oct 35.8 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Oct 36.8 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
14 Oct 36.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Oct after 36.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Oct after 36.1 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Oct after 36.9 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Oct after 38.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Oct after 37.5 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
20 Oct after 36.8 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Oct after 34.8 °C 26 % 50 km/h 3.3 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Sept 2018
After · 21 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 · 606Every 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 26 September 2018 and 14 October 2018: 19 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 15,259 hectares (152.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (15,348 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 55 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.