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Dirico fire, 16 September 2021 Dirico, Rivungo

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2021, 12:15 UTC

The fire started on 16 September 2021 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,329 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 345th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 60 in Angola in 2021, of 126.

Burnt area
7,329ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
16 Sept 2021 – 19 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
16 Sept
2021
Heat detections
204
in a single hotspot: 280 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920

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
42km/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

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 323 ha in 2016, 2,702 ha in 2017, 1,628 ha in 2018, 3,605 ha in 2019, 3,216 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,503 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    5,509 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.3 %
  2. Rivungo
    1,857 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
16 Sept 36.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Sept 35.1 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Sept 35.4 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Sept 34.4 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Sept after 35.0 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Sept after 35.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Sept after 35.7 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Sept after 34.4 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
24 Sept after 34.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Sept after 34.5 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Sept after 34.2 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Sept after 35.3 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Sept after 35.2 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Sept after 36.1 °C 14 % 36 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 · 9 Sept 2021
After · 26 Sept 2021

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 · 204Every 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 16 September 2021 and 19 September 2021: 4 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 7,329 hectares (73.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dirico (5,509 ha, 0.3 %); Rivungo (1,857 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.