Dirico fire, 11 September 2022 Dirico
The fire started on 11 September 2022 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,864 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 50th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 6 in Angola in 2022, of 143.
- Burnt area
- 18,864ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 11 Sept 2022 – 16 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 843
- in a single hotspot: 262 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 16.5GW
- 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
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,716 ha in 2016, 6,977 ha in 2017, 2,702 ha in 2018, 10,331 ha in 2019, 5,951 ha in 2020, 3,554 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,841 ha that had burned before.
- 10,331 ha Dirico fire, July 2019 93,844 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,804 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 14,397 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,377 ha Dirico fire, September 2017 15,509 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,390 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 17,026 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 416 ha Dirico fire, September 2017 9,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 285 ha Dirico fire, September 2021 8,449 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 63 ha Dirico fire, September 2018 7,425 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 37 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 8,851 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started18,936 ha reached on 11 Sept1.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Sept | 33.3 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Sept | 34.3 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Sept | 33.5 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Sept | 32.8 °C | 16 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 15 Sept | 31.4 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Sept | 31.1 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 17 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 18 Sept after | 34.2 °C | 12 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Sept after | 34.9 °C | 14 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 20 Sept after | 29.4 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 21 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 22 Sept after | 33.9 °C | 6 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 23 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 7 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 24 Sept after | 35.8 °C | 12 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 25 Sept after | 35.4 °C | 15 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 26 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 27 Sept after | 35.4 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Sept after | 36.2 °C | 14 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 29 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 30 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 1 Oct after | 35.5 °C | 11 % | 37 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.
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 · 843Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 93,844 haDiricoJuly 2019 · 56 days · 24 km away
- 45,046 haMavinga27 August 2026 · 12 days · 26 km away
- 32,075 haDirico17 August 2023 · 11 days · 29 km away
- 29,098 haDirico14 September 2018 · 13 days · 29 km away
- 18,883 haDiricoAugust 2016 · 18 days · 35 km away
- 81,550 haDirico18 August 2026 · 30 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dirico fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2022 and 16 September 2022: 6 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 18,864 hectares (188.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (18,936 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.