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Dirico fire, 31 July 2026 Dirico

Out · last detection 29 Aug 2026, 12:02 UTC

The fire started on 31 July 2026 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,913 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 73th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 81 in Angola in 2026, of 486.

Burnt area
15,913ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
31 Jul 2026 – 29 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
31 Jul
2026
Heat detections
345
in a single hotspot: 230 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jul29 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

3112567891011121314151719202223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
46km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 7 Sept.

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,902 ha in 2016, 4,943 ha in 2017, 3,074 ha in 2018, 179 ha in 2019, 8,321 ha in 2020, 10,638 ha in 2022, 7,628 ha in 2023, 1,816 ha in 2024, 11 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,523 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dirico where it started
    16,006 ha reached on 26 Jul
    0.8 %

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)
26 Jul 26.5 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jul 26.4 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jul 27.4 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul 28.3 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Jul 29.1 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Jul 28.6 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Aug 27.6 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Aug 27.2 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Aug 27.2 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Aug 27.9 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Aug 29.1 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Aug 29.2 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Aug 28.4 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Aug 27.7 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Aug 28.6 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Aug 26.7 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Aug 24.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Aug 26.3 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Aug 28.1 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Aug 27.7 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Aug 26.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Aug 26.5 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Aug 27.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug 30.1 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Aug 31.4 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Aug 31.5 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Aug 30.4 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Aug 30.6 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Aug 32.1 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
24 Aug 32.1 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Aug 31.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Aug 31.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Aug 31.1 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Aug 29.7 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Aug 29.3 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Aug after 31.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Aug after 33.3 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Sept after 34.5 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Sept after 33.4 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Sept after 34.2 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Sept after 33.5 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Sept after 33.4 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
6 Sept after 33.0 °C 15 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept after 34.0 °C 24 % 32 km/h 2.4 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jul 2026
After · 5 Sept 2026

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 13 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 56 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak56 µg/m³
Days over the guideline26 days
PM1061 µg/m³
Optical depth0.74
2425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311
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 · 345Every 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 31 July 2026 and 29 August 2026: 30 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 15,913 hectares (159.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dirico (16,006 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.

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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.