Dirico fire, 20 October 2020 Dirico
The fire started on 20 October 2020 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,030 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 471th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 76 in Angola in 2020, of 123.
- Burnt area
- 6,030ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 20 Oct 2020 – 24 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Oct
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 213
- in a single hotspot: 166 MW
- Danger at start
- 58
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 28 Oct.
This area had burned before
80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,930 ha in 2016, 1,432 ha in 2017, 2,614 ha in 2018, 178 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,821 ha that had burned before.
- 2,612 ha Dirico fire, September 2018 29,098 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,870 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 6,501 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 194 ha Dirico fire, August 2017 5,813 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 178 ha Dirico fire, July 2019 93,844 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started6,059 ha reached on 20 Oct0.3 %
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 Oct | 38.6 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 21 Oct | 39.3 °C | 7 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 22 Oct | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 23 Oct | 37.2 °C | 11 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 24 Oct | 36.3 °C | 11 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 25 Oct after | 37.8 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 26 Oct after | 38.1 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 27 Oct after | 37.7 °C | 13 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 28 Oct after | 36.9 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 1.5 mm | Very high 40 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 213Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 29,098 haDirico14 September 2018 · 13 days · 6 km away
- 32,075 haDirico17 August 2023 · 11 days · 10 km away
- 24,522 haDirico5 August 2022 · 15 days · 20 km away
- 22,273 haDirico16 August 2020 · 16 days · 28 km away
- 93,844 haDiricoJuly 2019 · 56 days · 35 km away
- 60,982 haDirico1 September 2025 · 32 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dirico fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 October 2020 and 24 October 2020: 5 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 6,030 hectares (60.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (6,059 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.
Report an error
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.