Dirico fire, 26 August 2026 Dirico
The fire started on 26 August 2026 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,068 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 132th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 128 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
- Burnt area
- 12,068ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 26 Aug 2026 – 29 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 202
- in a single hotspot: 104 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.9GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 7 Sept.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,878 ha in 2016, 2,935 ha in 2017, 3,751 ha in 2018, 4,905 ha in 2019, 3,039 ha in 2020, 2,928 ha in 2021, 5,465 ha in 2022, 2,773 ha in 2023, 1,002 ha in 2024, 2,800 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,954 ha that had burned before.
- 4,417 ha Dirico fire, July 2019 93,844 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,200 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 11,498 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,893 ha Dirico fire, September 2021 14,488 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 854 ha Dirico fire, September 2018 29,098 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 827 ha Dirico fire, September 2016 10,748 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 699 ha Dirico fire, September 2022 6,326 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 683 ha Dirico fire, September 2018 6,597 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 363 ha Dirico fire, September 2017 17,699 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started12,119 ha reached on 26 Aug0.6 %
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 Aug | 31.6 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Aug | 31.0 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Aug | 29.5 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 29 Aug | 29.2 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 30 Aug after | 31.2 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 31 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 1 Sept after | 34.2 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 2 Sept after | 33.2 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 3 Sept after | 33.9 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 4 Sept after | 34.0 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 6 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 1.7 mm | High 28 |
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 2026 the air beside the fire reached 55 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.6 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 · 202Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,699 haDirico4 September 2017 · 15 days · 19 km away
- 32,075 haDirico17 August 2023 · 11 days · 27 km away
- 18,429 haDirico4 September 2026 · 14 days · 28 km away
- 18,864 haDirico11 September 2022 · 6 days · 33 km away
- 29,098 haDirico14 September 2018 · 13 days · 34 km away
- 24,522 haDirico5 August 2022 · 15 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dirico fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2026 and 29 August 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 12,068 hectares (120.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dirico (12,119 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 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.