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Dirico fire, 1 September 2025 Dirico

Out · last detection 3 Oct 2025, 11:40 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2025 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 60,982 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 6 in Angola in 2025, of 191.

Burnt area
60,982ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
32days
1 Sept 2025 – 2 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
1 Sept
2025
Heat detections
1,408
in a single hotspot: 233 MW
Danger at start
66
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
26.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept2 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

12345678910111213141516171819202124262728293013

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
56km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17,557 ha in 2016, 24,023 ha in 2017, 24,060 ha in 2018, 8,998 ha in 2019, 17,646 ha in 2020, 16,337 ha in 2021, 27,972 ha in 2022, 22,282 ha in 2023, 14,285 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 58,862 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    61,290 ha reached on 25 Aug
    3.3 %

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)
25 Aug 33.2 °C 5 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
26 Aug 33.2 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Aug 31.7 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Aug 33.7 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Aug 34.4 °C 7 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Aug 34.2 °C 5 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
31 Aug 34.1 °C 6 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Sept 34.1 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
2 Sept 33.6 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Sept 32.0 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
4 Sept 32.8 °C 9 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
5 Sept 34.1 °C 3 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
6 Sept 35.0 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Sept 34.9 °C 7 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Sept 35.2 °C 6 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Sept 35.6 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Sept 35.8 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Sept 35.2 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
12 Sept 35.0 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
13 Sept 35.8 °C 8 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
14 Sept 36.4 °C 8 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Sept 36.1 °C 7 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Sept 36.8 °C 6 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Sept 36.5 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
18 Sept 37.5 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
19 Sept 37.0 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
20 Sept 36.1 °C 9 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
21 Sept 35.1 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 Sept 33.7 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept 35.7 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Sept 36.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Sept 37.8 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Sept 35.6 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
27 Sept 35.7 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Sept 34.3 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Sept 34.0 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Sept 36.0 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 Oct 35.5 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
2 Oct 35.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Oct after 36.6 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Oct after 37.0 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
5 Oct after 35.9 °C 6 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
6 Oct after 37.5 °C 5 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
7 Oct after 38.6 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Oct after 36.8 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
9 Oct after 37.0 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
10 Oct after 35.9 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
11 Oct after 35.1 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Oct after 35.5 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2025
After · 9 Oct 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 9 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak41 µg/m³
Days over the guideline24 days
PM1042 µg/m³
Optical depth0.83
303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012345
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 1,408Every 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 1 September 2025 and 2 October 2025: 32 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 60,982 hectares (609.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (61,290 ha, 3.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, 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.

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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.