Dirico fire, 10 August 2023 Dirico, Mavinga
The fire started on 10 August 2023 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,775 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 242th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 39 in Angola in 2023, of 158.
- Burnt area
- 8,775ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 10 Aug 2023 – 26 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 10 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 315
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- 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: 307 ha in 2016, 3,995 ha in 2017, 2,944 ha in 2018, 4,723 ha in 2019, 3,350 ha in 2020, 1,155 ha in 2021, 2,891 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,335 ha that had burned before.
- 1,151 ha Mavinga fire, September 2018 5,918 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 965 ha Dirico fire, September 2017 9,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 613 ha Mavinga fire, September 2019 5,020 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 160 ha Dirico fire, August 2021 12,500 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started6,132 ha reached on 10 Aug0.3 %
-
2,690 ha reached on 18 Aug0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Aug | 28.0 °C | 22 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 11 Aug | 27.7 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Aug | 28.9 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Aug | 29.3 °C | 17 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Aug | 30.0 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Aug | 31.0 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 16 Aug | 30.6 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Aug | 31.3 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 18 Aug | 32.3 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Aug | 32.0 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Aug | 32.8 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 21 Aug | 33.6 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Aug | 34.5 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Aug | 34.7 °C | 11 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Aug | 34.0 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Aug | 34.5 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 26 Aug | 33.4 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 27 Aug after | 30.9 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 28 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 30 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 29 Aug after | 27.4 °C | 26 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Sept after | 33.5 °C | 11 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 4 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 5 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
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 · 315Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 45,046 haMavinga27 August 2026 · 12 days · 10 km away
- 93,844 haDiricoJuly 2019 · 56 days · 17 km away
- 81,550 haDirico19 August 2026 · 29 days · 23 km away
- 17,615 haDirico7 September 2023 · 20 days · 32 km away
- 18,864 haDirico11 September 2022 · 6 days · 34 km away
- 20,779 haMavinga10 September 2025 · 11 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dirico fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 August 2023 and 26 August 2023: 17 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 8,775 hectares (87.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dirico (6,132 ha, 0.3 %); Mavinga (2,690 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.