Bulungu fire, 21 July 2018 Bulungu, Idiofa
The fire started on 21 July 2018 in Bulungu, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,651 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 149th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 54 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2018, of 128.
- Burnt area
- 6,651ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 21 Jul 2018 – 9 Aug 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 21 Jul
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 313
- in a single hotspot: 127 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.6GW
- 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 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 10 Aug.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,578 ha in 2016, 3,728 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,639 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Bulungu where it started5,730 ha reached on 14 Jul0.4 %
-
964 ha reached on 16 Jul0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jul | 35.3 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 22 Jul | 35.0 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Jul | 36.1 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Jul | 35.0 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Jul | 35.0 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Jul | 34.1 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Jul | 33.6 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Jul | 32.5 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Jul | 32.4 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Jul | 34.3 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Jul | 33.5 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 1 Aug | 32.0 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Aug | 32.5 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Aug | 35.4 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Aug | 35.0 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Aug | 36.2 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Aug | 34.3 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Aug | 34.0 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Aug | 33.8 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 Aug | 33.1 °C | 44 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 10 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
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.
Detections table · 313Every 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 Bulungu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 July 2018 and 9 August 2018: 20 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 6,651 hectares (66.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bulungu (5,730 ha, 0.4 %); Idiofa (964 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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
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 (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.