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CD · Congo - Kinshasa · →

Bukama fire, 12 July 2017 Bukama, Malemba-Nkulu

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2017, 11:08 UTC

The fire started on 12 July 2017 in Bukama, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,779 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 112th largest in Haut-Lomami since 2016 (of 172 with a page). Number 93 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area
5,779ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
12 Jul 2017 – 16 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
12 Jul
2017
Heat detections
174
in a single hotspot: 339 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

12131416

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
29km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 826 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Bukama where it started
    3,784 ha reached on 12 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Malemba-Nkulu
    2,026 ha reached on 12 Jul
    0.1 %

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)
12 Jul 32.0 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Jul 31.8 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Jul 31.8 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jul 32.8 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Jul 32.9 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Jul after 33.4 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Jul after 32.9 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jul after 33.3 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Jul after 33.7 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jul after 32.6 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Jul after 34.3 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jul after 33.1 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Jul after 32.0 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jul after 32.7 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Jul after 31.7 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jul 2017
After · 23 Jul 2017

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 · 174Every 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 Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bukama fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 July 2017 and 16 July 2017: 5 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 5,779 hectares (57.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bukama (3,784 ha, 0.2 %); Malemba-Nkulu (2,026 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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

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.