Dirico fire, 29 July 2026 Dirico
The fire started on 29 July 2026 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,419 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 338th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 237 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
- Burnt area
- 7,419ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 29 Jul 2026 – 8 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 107
- in a single hotspot: 106 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 151MW
- detected power per day, on average
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
68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,394 ha in 2016, 901 ha in 2017, 223 ha in 2018, 1,014 ha in 2019, 56 ha in 2020, 430 ha in 2021, 1,548 ha in 2022, 1,012 ha in 2023, 982 ha in 2024, 309 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,071 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started7,451 ha reached on 29 Jul0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jul | 27.0 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 29 Jul | 28.2 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Jul | 28.6 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 31 Jul | 28.4 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Aug | 27.3 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 2 Aug | 27.1 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Aug | 27.0 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Aug | 27.7 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Aug | 28.6 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Aug | 28.9 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Aug | 28.5 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 8 Aug | 27.5 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 11 Aug after | 24.4 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 12 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Aug after | 27.7 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Aug after | 26.7 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Aug after | 31.0 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 20 Aug after | 31.0 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 21 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 22 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 19 % | 30 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.
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 13 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 52 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 35: 2.3 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 · 107Every 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 29 July 2026 and 8 August 2026: 11 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 7,419 hectares (74.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (7,451 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 107 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.