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AO · Angola · →

Dirico fire, 6 September 2019 Dirico, Rivungo

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2019, 12:40 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2019 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,465 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 46th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 14 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
19,465ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
6 Sept 2019 – 18 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Sept
2019
Heat detections
649
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314151619

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
54km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,245 ha in 2016, 3,413 ha in 2017, 2,642 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,143 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    18,472 ha reached on 4 Sept
    1.0 %
  2. Rivungo
    1,066 ha reached on 6 Sept
    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)
4 Sept 33.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Sept 33.6 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Sept 34.4 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Sept 30.1 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
8 Sept 25.4 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Sept 27.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Sept 29.1 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Sept 31.3 °C 10 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Sept 34.1 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Sept 34.4 °C 9 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Sept 34.8 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Sept 35.4 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Sept 34.7 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
17 Sept 33.8 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Sept 33.4 °C 13 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
19 Sept after 33.6 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
20 Sept after 33.4 °C 8 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
21 Sept after 33.5 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Sept after 34.9 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept after 33.8 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Sept after 34.9 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Sept after 32.6 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Sept after 27.9 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept after 28.2 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Sept after 30.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Sept after 33.1 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2019
After · 25 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 · 649Every 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 6 September 2019 and 18 September 2019: 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 19,465 hectares (194.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dirico (18,472 ha, 1.0 %); Rivungo (1,066 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.