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Dirico fire, 21 September 2020 Dirico

Out · last detection 29 Sept 2020, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 21 September 2020 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,356 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 102th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 9 in Angola in 2020, of 123.

Burnt area
13,356ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
21 Sept 2020 – 28 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
21 Sept
2020
Heat detections
411
in a single hotspot: 63 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Sept28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829

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
45km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,957 ha in 2016, 2,199 ha in 2017, 1,712 ha in 2018, 8,615 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,772 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    13,404 ha reached on 21 Sept
    0.7 %

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)
21 Sept 36.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Sept 36.8 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Sept 35.0 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Sept 35.0 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Sept 36.7 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Sept 36.1 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept 36.7 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Sept 36.7 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Sept after 36.5 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Sept after 35.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Oct after 35.7 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 45
2 Oct after 35.2 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Oct after 35.8 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Oct after 38.2 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Oct after 38.5 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
6 Oct after 38.0 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Oct after 36.5 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Oct after 36.9 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
9 Oct after 36.8 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Sept 2020
After · 5 Oct 2020

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 · 411Every 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 21 September 2020 and 28 September 2020: 8 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 13,356 hectares (133.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (13,404 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.