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AO · Angola · →

Dirico fire, 20 September 2019 Dirico

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2019, 12:15 UTC

The fire started on 20 September 2019 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,307 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 267th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 76 in Angola in 2019, of 207.

Burnt area
8,307ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
20 Sept 2019 – 30 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Sept
2019
Heat detections
347
in a single hotspot: 87 MW
Danger at start
67
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Sept30 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

20212223242526272829301

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
50km/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

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 713 ha in 2016, 3,857 ha in 2017, 651 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,678 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    8,347 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.4 %

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 33.2 °C 8 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
21 Sept 33.4 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Sept 35.3 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept 33.2 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Sept 34.5 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
25 Sept 33.2 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
26 Sept 28.3 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Sept 28.2 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Sept 30.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Sept 33.1 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Sept 32.9 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Oct after 30.9 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
2 Oct after 32.4 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Oct after 34.9 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Oct after 34.7 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Oct after 35.0 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
6 Oct after 35.7 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
7 Oct after 35.8 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Oct after 37.1 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Oct after 36.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 58
10 Oct after 31.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Sept 2019
After · 7 Oct 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 · 347Every 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 September 2019 and 30 September 2019: 11 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 8,307 hectares (83.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (8,347 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 50 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.