How long did the Bondo fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 January 2016 and 20 February 2016: 22 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 6,173 hectares (61.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Bondo (6,211 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 39 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 Congo - Kinshasa (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

CD · Congo - Kinshasa · 2016-01-30 → 2016-02-20

Bondo fire, 30 January 2016 Bondo

Out · last detection 21 Feb 2016, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 30 January 2016 in Bondo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,173 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 34th largest in Lower Uele since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 92 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area: 6,173ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 22days; 30 Jan 2016 – 20 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; territories
Started on: 30 Jan; 2016
Heat detections: 521; in a single hotspot: 77 MW
Danger at start: 50; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 3.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 21 Feb 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jan20 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456789101112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

40°high

39km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 27 Feb.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Bondo where it started

6,211 ha reached on 27 Jan

0.2 %

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)
30 Jan	35.9 °C	10 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
31 Jan	36.5 °C	12 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
1 Feb	37.3 °C	13 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
2 Feb	37.8 °C	13 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
3 Feb	38.2 °C	12 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
4 Feb	38.7 °C	13 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
5 Feb	39.9 °C	12 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
6 Feb	38.0 °C	18 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
7 Feb	37.1 °C	18 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
8 Feb	36.0 °C	23 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
9 Feb	37.2 °C	20 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
10 Feb	36.8 °C	22 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
11 Feb	37.1 °C	12 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
12 Feb	36.3 °C	23 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
13 Feb	37.3 °C	15 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
14 Feb	36.9 °C	19 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
15 Feb	37.6 °C	20 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
16 Feb	35.6 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Feb	36.6 °C	31 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
18 Feb	37.0 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
19 Feb	37.2 °C	32 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
20 Feb	37.3 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
21 Feb after	36.5 °C	35 %	34 km/h	0.6 mm	High 32
22 Feb after	37.1 °C	30 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
23 Feb after	38.0 °C	27 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
24 Feb after	36.9 °C	26 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
25 Feb after	39.0 °C	22 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
26 Feb after	38.0 °C	28 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Feb after	38.1 °C	29 %	29 km/h	2.4 mm	High 22

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 Jan 2016

After · 27 Feb 2016

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 521Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bondo fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 January 2016 and 20 February 2016: 22 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 6,173 hectares (61.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Bondo (6,211 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 39 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 Congo - Kinshasa (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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.

Where it burned