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Dirico fire, 29 September 2018 Dirico, Mavinga

Out · last detection 8 Oct 2018, 23:37 UTC

The fire started on 29 September 2018 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,425 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 335th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 38 in Angola in 2018, of 100.

Burnt area
7,425ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
29 Sept 2018 – 7 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
29 Sept
2018
Heat detections
362
in a single hotspot: 155 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Sept7 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

293012345678

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
55km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,607 ha in 2016, 1,620 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    7,099 ha reached on 28 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Mavinga
    352 ha reached on 4 Oct
    0.0 %

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)
29 Sept 35.0 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
30 Sept 33.5 °C 19 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
1 Oct 31.9 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Oct 32.4 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Oct 33.6 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Oct 34.6 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Oct 34.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Oct 35.0 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Oct 34.0 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Oct after 32.7 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
9 Oct after 32.7 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
10 Oct after 33.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Oct after 34.2 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Oct after 35.2 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Oct after 36.2 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Oct after 35.9 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Oct after 35.3 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Oct after 35.2 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Oct after 36.4 °C 15 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Sept 2018
After · 14 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 · 362Every 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 29 September 2018 and 7 October 2018: 9 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 7,425 hectares (74.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dirico (7,099 ha, 0.4 %); Mavinga (352 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °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.