Dirico fire, 20 August 2026 Dirico, Rivungo
The fire started on 20 August 2026 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,453 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 37th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 659 with a page). Number 44 in Angola in 2026, of 486.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 21,453ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 20 Aug 2026 – 4 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 579
- in a single hotspot: 215 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 561MW
- 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
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,822 ha in 2016, 6,273 ha in 2017, 6,697 ha in 2018, 10,782 ha in 2019, 11,761 ha in 2020, 9,016 ha in 2021, 7,340 ha in 2022, 5,267 ha in 2023, 3,115 ha in 2024, 4,224 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 20,963 ha that had burned before.
- 6,778 ha Dirico fire, September 2021 11,170 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,683 ha Rivungo fire, September 2022 19,777 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,579 ha Dirico fire, September 2020 8,930 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,152 ha Dirico fire, September 2018 5,946 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,465 ha Dirico fire, August 2019 5,448 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,992 ha Dirico fire, September 2021 7,329 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 894 ha Rivungo fire, September 2025 13,325 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 456 ha Dirico fire, September 2020 13,356 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started15,393 ha reached on 20 Aug0.8 %
-
6,161 ha reached on 20 Aug0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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 Aug | 31.1 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Aug | 30.2 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 22 Aug | 30.4 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 23 Aug | 31.9 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 24 Aug | 31.6 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 25 Aug | 31.0 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Aug | 31.8 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 27 Aug | 30.7 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Aug | 29.4 °C | 16 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 29 Aug | 29.2 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 30 Aug | 31.3 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Aug | 33.1 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Sept | 34.1 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Sept | 33.1 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 3 Sept | 33.7 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Sept | 34.5 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 6 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Sept after | 33.3 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Sept after | 32.8 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Sept after | 30.6 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 21 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 12 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Sept after | 34.9 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very high 38 |
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 5 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 70 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 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 · 579Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,059 haDirico14 August 2026 · 9 days · 15 km away
- 19,777 haRivungo6 September 2022 · 15 days · 17 km away
- 17,785 haDirico20 August 2019 · 12 days · 18 km away
- 19,465 haDirico6 September 2019 · 13 days · 20 km away
- 19,366 haRivungo1 September 2026 · 10 days · 29 km away
- 14,131 haDirico18 August 2019 · 11 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dirico fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 August 2026 to 4 September 2026 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 August 2026 to 3 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 21,453 hectares (214.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dirico (15,393 ha, 0.8 %); Rivungo (6,161 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 20 August 2026 to 3 September 2026. 579 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.