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Dirico fire, 20 August 2022 Dirico

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2022, 12:28 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2022 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,462 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 259th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 43 in Angola in 2022, of 143.

Burnt area
8,462ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
20 Aug 2022 – 31 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Aug
2022
Heat detections
387
in a single hotspot: 159 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug31 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627282930311

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high
48km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,242 ha in 2016, 3,001 ha in 2017, 3,936 ha in 2018, 38 ha in 2019, 4,100 ha in 2020, 767 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,662 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    8,512 ha reached on 19 Aug
    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 Aug 24.3 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Aug 26.8 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Aug 28.9 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Aug 29.2 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Aug 28.6 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Aug 28.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Aug 30.4 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug 31.3 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Aug 31.9 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Aug 32.6 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Aug 32.7 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
31 Aug 31.6 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Sept after 29.6 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
2 Sept after 28.9 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Sept after 28.7 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Sept after 31.5 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept after 33.8 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept after 34.9 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
7 Sept after 34.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Sept after 33.5 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Sept after 33.1 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Sept after 32.9 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Aug 2022
After · 7 Sept 2022

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 · 387Every 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 August 2022 and 31 August 2022: 12 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 8,462 hectares (84.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (8,512 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.