Dirico fire, 16 September 2023 Dirico
The fire started on 16 September 2023 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,632 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 143th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 22 in Angola in 2023, of 158.
- Burnt area
- 11,632ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 16 Sept 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 16 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 379
- in a single hotspot: 437 MW
- Danger at start
- 54
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 9.7GW
- 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
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,559 ha in 2016, 4,220 ha in 2017, 1,450 ha in 2018, 7,932 ha in 2019, 2,769 ha in 2020, 3,248 ha in 2021, 6,127 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,204 ha that had burned before.
- 7,932 ha Dirico fire, July 2019 93,844 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,896 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 17,026 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,005 ha Dirico fire, September 2022 18,864 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,382 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 14,397 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 194 ha Dirico fire, September 2017 15,509 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started11,673 ha reached on 16 Sept0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Sept | 34.8 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Sept | 35.3 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 18 Sept | 36.2 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Sept | 35.0 °C | 14 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 20 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 21 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 22 Sept after | 35.0 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 23 Sept after | 36.2 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 24 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 25 Sept after | 34.2 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 26 Sept after | 28.5 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 27 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Sept after | 33.9 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 29 Sept after | 34.9 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
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 · 379Every 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 16 September 2023 and 19 September 2023: 4 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 11,632 hectares (116.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (11,673 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, 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.