Dirico fire, 20 July 2026 Dirico
The fire started on 20 July 2026 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,443 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 569th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 415 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
- Burnt area
- 5,443ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 20 Jul 2026 – 23 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 102
- in a single hotspot: 59 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,276 ha in 2016, 1,330 ha in 2017, 465 ha in 2018, 1,687 ha in 2019, 546 ha in 2020, 3,883 ha in 2021, 1,318 ha in 2022, 956 ha in 2023, 1,208 ha in 2024, 1,287 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,244 ha that had burned before.
- 3,879 ha Dirico fire, September 2021 11,114 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,099 ha Dirico fire, September 2022 5,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 819 ha Dirico fire, September 2025 5,524 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 689 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 9,560 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 500 ha Dirico fire, September 2020 11,093 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 220 ha Dirico fire, September 2022 9,991 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started5,467 ha reached on 20 Jul0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jul | 27.9 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Jul | 29.1 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Jul | 29.9 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Jul | 29.9 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Jul after | 29.3 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Jul after | 28.5 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 26 Jul after | 26.2 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 27 Jul after | 26.4 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Jul after | 27.1 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 29 Jul after | 28.2 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 30 Jul after | 28.7 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 Jul after | 28.4 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Aug after | 27.4 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 2 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
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 22 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 77 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.4 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 · 102Every 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 20 July 2026 and 23 July 2026: 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 5,443 hectares (54.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (5,467 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
- 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.