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AO · Angola · →

Dirico fire, 20 August 2019 Dirico, Rivungo

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2019, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2019 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,785 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 56th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 15 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
17,785ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
20 Aug 2019 – 31 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 Aug
2019
Heat detections
593
in a single hotspot: 198 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
7.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug31 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627282930311

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
53km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,476 ha in 2016, 7,027 ha in 2017, 326 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,141 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    16,911 ha reached on 20 Aug
    0.9 %
  2. Rivungo
    961 ha reached on 30 Aug
    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)
20 Aug 27.4 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Aug 27.4 °C 18 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Aug 25.6 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Aug 26.6 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Aug 27.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Aug 27.5 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Aug 29.4 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Aug 31.8 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug 32.4 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug 33.1 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 34.0 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug 33.1 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Sept after 28.4 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 Sept after 31.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Sept after 32.2 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Sept after 33.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Sept after 33.6 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Sept after 34.5 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Sept after 30.1 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
8 Sept after 25.4 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Sept after 27.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Sept after 29.2 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Sept after 31.4 °C 10 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Sept after 34.2 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Aug 2019
After · 7 Sept 2019

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 · 593Every 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 20 August 2019 and 31 August 2019: 12 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 17,785 hectares (177.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dirico (16,911 ha, 0.9 %); Rivungo (961 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.