Skip to content
worldfires
AO · Angola · →

Dirico fire, 17 September 2022 Dirico

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2022, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2022 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,430 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 184th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 28 in Angola in 2022, of 143.

Burnt area
10,430ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
17 Sept 2022 – 24 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Sept
2022
Heat detections
340
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
52km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,077 ha in 2016, 6,959 ha in 2017, 1,054 ha in 2018, 1,236 ha in 2019, 1,747 ha in 2020, 4,817 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,989 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    10,487 ha reached on 17 Sept
    0.6 %

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)
17 Sept 32.3 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Sept 34.3 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept 34.7 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept 29.0 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Sept 31.5 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Sept 34.1 °C 6 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Sept 35.5 °C 6 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Sept 36.1 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
25 Sept after 35.8 °C 14 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
26 Sept after 34.9 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Sept after 35.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Sept after 36.4 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Sept after 34.8 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Sept after 35.3 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Oct after 35.9 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
2 Oct after 36.1 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
3 Oct after 36.4 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Oct after 36.9 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Oct after 37.8 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
6 Oct after 37.0 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2022
After · 1 Oct 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 · 340Every 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 17 September 2022 and 24 September 2022: 8 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 10,430 hectares (104.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (10,487 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.