How long did the Dimbelenge fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 July 2020 and 27 July 2020: 13 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 11,689 hectares (116.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dimbelenge (6,830 ha, 0.6 %); Demba (4,946 ha, 0.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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 · 2020-07-15 → 2020-07-27

Dimbelenge fire, 15 July 2020 Dimbelenge, Demba

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2020, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2020 in Dimbelenge, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,689 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in Central Kasai since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 35 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2020, of 165.

Burnt area: 11,689ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 13days; 15 Jul 2020 – 27 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit: 2; territories
Started on: 15 Jul; 2020
Heat detections: 620; in a single hotspot: 118 MW
Danger at start: 35; High · FWI index
Energy released: 5.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Jul 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223252627

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

43km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 5 Aug.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,546 ha in 2016, 1,147 ha in 2017, 1,431 ha in 2018, 2,983 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,098 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Dimbelenge where it started

6,830 ha reached on 9 Jul

0.6 %
Demba

4,946 ha reached on 9 Jul

0.5 %

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)
9 Jul	34.1 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
10 Jul	34.2 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
11 Jul	33.2 °C	36 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
12 Jul	31.9 °C	43 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 Jul	31.4 °C	44 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
14 Jul	29.9 °C	53 %	26 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 18
15 Jul	29.6 °C	46 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
16 Jul	32.8 °C	26 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
17 Jul	31.0 °C	24 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
18 Jul	30.3 °C	22 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
19 Jul	30.8 °C	23 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Jul	31.8 °C	20 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
21 Jul	33.3 °C	23 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
22 Jul	33.1 °C	25 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
23 Jul	32.8 °C	28 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Jul	31.0 °C	38 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
25 Jul	31.9 °C	30 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
26 Jul	32.5 °C	23 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
27 Jul	32.4 °C	21 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
28 Jul after	31.4 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
29 Jul after	31.9 °C	23 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
30 Jul after	34.0 °C	23 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Jul after	34.2 °C	24 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Aug after	33.6 °C	30 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
2 Aug after	34.0 °C	28 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
3 Aug after	33.2 °C	22 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
4 Aug after	33.1 °C	28 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
5 Aug after	29.8 °C	51 %	27 km/h	1.7 mm	Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Jul 2020

After · 3 Aug 2020

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 · 620Every 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 Dimbelenge fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 July 2020 and 27 July 2020: 13 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 11,689 hectares (116.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dimbelenge (6,830 ha, 0.6 %); Demba (4,946 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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