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AO · Angola · →

Dirico fire, 7 September 2020 Rivungo, Dirico

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2020, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2020 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,930 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 233th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 25 in Angola in 2020, of 123.

Burnt area
8,930ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
7 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
7 Sept
2020
Heat detections
292
in a single hotspot: 138 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

78910111213141516

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
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

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,004 ha in 2016, 4,077 ha in 2017, 3,486 ha in 2018, 5,078 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,510 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rivungo
    5,938 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.2 %
  2. Dirico where it started
    3,045 ha reached on 6 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
7 Sept 30.8 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Sept 30.8 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept 30.4 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Sept 30.1 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Sept 30.5 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Sept 30.8 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept 30.6 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept 32.7 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Sept 34.1 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept after 34.3 °C 12 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Sept after 36.1 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Sept after 31.4 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 47
19 Sept after 35.1 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept after 36.2 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept after 36.7 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept after 37.0 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Sept after 35.1 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Sept after 35.0 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Sept after 36.9 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Aug 2020
After · 22 Sept 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 · 292Every 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 7 September 2020 and 15 September 2020: 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 8,930 hectares (89.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rivungo (5,938 ha, 0.2 %); Dirico (3,045 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.