Dirico fire, 1 September 2022 Dirico
The fire started on 1 September 2022 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,785 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 505th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 98 in Angola in 2022, of 143.
- Burnt area
- 5,785ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 1 Sept 2022 – 7 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 1 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 221
- in a single hotspot: 102 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.1GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,749 ha in 2016, 1,117 ha in 2017, 1,269 ha in 2018, 1,299 ha in 2019, 1,290 ha in 2020, 1,349 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,573 ha that had burned before.
- 1,290 ha Dirico fire, September 2020 11,093 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 359 ha Dirico fire, September 2021 11,114 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 315 ha Dirico fire, August 2021 10,743 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 245 ha Dirico fire, August 2019 14,131 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 53 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 9,560 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started5,812 ha reached on 1 Sept0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sept | 29.1 °C | 19 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 2 Sept | 28.2 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 3 Sept | 28.2 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Sept | 31.8 °C | 17 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Sept | 34.0 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Sept | 35.2 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 7 Sept | 34.3 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 8 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 9 Sept after | 32.8 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 10 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 11 Sept after | 33.5 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 12 Sept after | 34.4 °C | 10 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 13 Sept after | 33.9 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 14 Sept after | 33.1 °C | 16 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 15 Sept after | 31.2 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 17 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
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 · 221Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dirico fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 September 2022 and 7 September 2022: 7 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 5,785 hectares (57.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (5,812 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.
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.