Dirico fire, 16 August 2025 Dirico
The fire started on 16 August 2025 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,537 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 414th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 108 in Angola in 2025, of 191.
- Burnt area
- 6,537ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 16 Aug 2025 – 23 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 200
- in a single hotspot: 88 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.3GW
- 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
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,181 ha in 2016, 3,055 ha in 2017, 532 ha in 2018, 3,444 ha in 2019, 319 ha in 2020, 1,775 ha in 2021, 1,243 ha in 2022, 2,292 ha in 2023, 321 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,417 ha that had burned before.
- 3,442 ha Dirico fire, August 2019 17,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 774 ha Rivungo fire, August 2022 8,840 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 319 ha Dirico fire, October 2020 5,422 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 299 ha Dirico fire, October 2018 6,262 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 233 ha Rivungo fire, August 2018 8,639 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 151 ha Rivungo fire, July 2017 5,453 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Dirico fire, August 2019 10,970 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started6,570 ha reached on 17 Aug0.4 %
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 Aug | 32.0 °C | 9 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Aug | 31.9 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Aug | 31.5 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 19 Aug | 31.8 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 20 Aug | 31.5 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 21 Aug | 31.8 °C | 9 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Aug | 32.7 °C | 7 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 23 Aug | 33.6 °C | 7 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 6 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 25 Aug after | 33.5 °C | 5 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 26 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 27 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 28 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 29 Aug after | 34.4 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 5 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 31 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 8 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 1 Sept after | 34.1 °C | 7 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 2 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 8 % | 38 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.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 26 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 200Every 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 August 2025 and 23 August 2025: 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 6,537 hectares (65.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (6,570 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.