Dirico fire, October 2026 Dirico, Rivungo
The fire started on 3 October 2026 in Dirico, Angola, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,928 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 164th largest in Cuando Cubango since 2016 (of 658 with a page). Number 147 in Angola in 2026, of 485.
- Burnt area
- 10,928ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 3 Oct 2026 – 7 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 3 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 185
- in a single hotspot: 104 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,894 ha in 2016, 3,773 ha in 2017, 3,535 ha in 2018, 2,755 ha in 2019, 2,952 ha in 2020, 2,493 ha in 2021, 3,165 ha in 2022, 3,126 ha in 2023, 1,491 ha in 2024, 1,986 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,804 ha that had burned before.
- 3,535 ha Rivungo fire, August 2018 8,639 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,043 ha Rivungo fire, August 2022 8,840 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,982 ha Dirico fire, October 2020 5,422 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,693 ha Dirico fire, August 2025 6,537 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,518 ha Dirico fire, August 2019 17,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,151 ha Dirico fire, August 2019 10,970 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 971 ha Rivungo fire, July 2017 5,453 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 783 ha Dirico fire, September 2017 8,307 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dirico where it started9,548 ha reached on 3 Oct0.5 %
-
1,442 ha reached on 4 Oct0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Oct | 29.3 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Oct | 32.3 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Oct | 34.2 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 6 Oct | 34.7 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 7 Oct | 33.2 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 8 Oct after | 35.1 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 9 Oct after | 34.3 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Oct after | 34.3 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Oct after | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 12 Oct after | 34.8 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 13 Oct after | 33.6 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Oct after | 35.5 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Oct after | 36.2 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Oct after | 36.2 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Oct after | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
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 7 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 36 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.4 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 · 185Every 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?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 October 2026 to 7 October 2026 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 October 2026 to 6 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,928 hectares (109.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dirico (9,548 ha, 0.5 %); Rivungo (1,442 ha, 0.0 %).
- Is the Dirico fire still active?
- No fire detections since 7 Oct 2026, 11:32 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.