Dirico fire, 7 September 2023 Dirico
The fire started on 7 September 2023 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,615 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 59th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 6 in Angola in 2023, of 158.
- Burnt area
- 17,615ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 7 Sept 2023 – 26 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 820
- in a single hotspot: 154 MW
- Danger at start
- 51
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.3GW
- 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
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,695 ha in 2016, 5,767 ha in 2017, 3,991 ha in 2018, 890 ha in 2019, 5,986 ha in 2020, 3,880 ha in 2021, 8,727 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,916 ha that had burned before.
- 4,258 ha Dirico fire, August 2020 22,273 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,944 ha Dirico fire, July 2022 15,478 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,160 ha Dirico fire, August 2017 16,657 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,207 ha Dirico fire, September 2018 29,098 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,137 ha Dirico fire, September 2021 17,028 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 687 ha Dirico fire, July 2019 93,844 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 597 ha Dirico fire, September 2017 5,198 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 40 ha Dirico fire, September 2021 5,270 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started17,696 ha reached on 7 Sept0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Sept | 34.6 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 8 Sept | 34.8 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 9 Sept | 35.0 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 10 Sept | 34.4 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Sept | 35.0 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 12 Sept | 26.9 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 13 Sept | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 14 Sept | 33.7 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Sept | 34.4 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Sept | 35.1 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 17 Sept | 35.4 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 18 Sept | 36.3 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 19 Sept | 35.0 °C | 14 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 20 Sept | 35.3 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 21 Sept | 35.5 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 22 Sept | 34.9 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 23 Sept | 36.2 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 24 Sept | 35.2 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 25 Sept | 34.4 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 26 Sept | 28.7 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 27 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Sept after | 34.1 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 29 Sept after | 35.2 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 30 Sept after | 36.5 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 1 Oct after | 37.3 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 2 Oct after | 36.6 °C | 20 % | 52 km/h | 0.4 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 3 Oct after | 34.8 °C | 17 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 4 Oct after | 34.0 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 5 Oct after | 35.1 °C | 11 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 6 Oct after | 35.2 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
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 · 820Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 22,273 haDirico16 August 2020 · 16 days · 14 km away
- 93,844 haDiricoJuly 2019 · 56 days · 15 km away
- 81,550 haDirico19 August 2026 · 29 days · 17 km away
- 60,982 haDirico1 September 2025 · 32 days · 20 km away
- 29,098 haDirico14 September 2018 · 13 days · 28 km away
- 45,046 haMavinga27 August 2026 · 12 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dirico fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2023 and 26 September 2023: 20 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 17,615 hectares (176.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (17,696 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, 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.