Skip to content
worldfires
CG · Republic of the Congo · –

Djambala fire, 18 July 2024 Djambala

Out · last detection 20 Jul 2024, 12:32 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2024 in Djambala, Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,489 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 59th largest in Plateaux since 2016 (of 196 with a page). Number 28 in Republic of the Congo in 2024, of 103.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,489ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
18 Jul 2024 – 22 Jul 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Jul
2024
Heat detections
34
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
103MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul22 Jul
20 Jul 2024

How it evolved, day by day

18 Jul 2024 · 246 MW · 19 19 Jul 2024 · 48 MW · 11 20 Jul 2024 · 14 MW · 4
18 Jul 19 Jul 20 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
37km/h · peak gust
52%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.9% of the area of London (15 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Djambala where it started
    1,498 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)
18 Jul 29.3 °C 57 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
19 Jul 28.7 °C 55 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
20 Jul 28.6 °C 53 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Jul 28.6 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
22 Jul 28.9 °C 58 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
23 Jul after 30.2 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
24 Jul after 29.9 °C 53 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
25 Jul after 29.0 °C 56 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
26 Jul after 28.4 °C 58 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
27 Jul after 28.6 °C 56 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 Jul after 29.7 °C 53 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
29 Jul after 28.7 °C 57 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
30 Jul after 27.9 °C 60 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
31 Jul after 30.0 °C 50 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
1 Aug after 29.5 °C 50 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 16.2, a minimum humidity of 57% and 23 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 18.

FWI at the start 16.2
Minimum humidity 57 %
Days without rain 23
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Djambala fire, July 2022
1,142 ha 3 days FWI 14.1 Min. humidity 57 % 20 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.2 mm on 20 Jul.

What happened to them

3 days
median duration
1,368 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 9 of 18 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,489 ha against a median of 1,368 ha) and lasted 5 days, against 3 days.

In 9 of 18, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.3 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
37km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 22 Jul, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 9 of 18, with a median of 1.3 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jul 2024
After · 29 Jul 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 22 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 43 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak43 µg/m³
Days over the guideline7 days
PM1062 µg/m³
Optical depth1.03
16 Jul18 Jul20 Jul22 Jul
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 34Every 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 Republic of the Congo

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Djambala fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 July 2024 to 22 July 2024 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 July 2024 to 20 July 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,489 hectares (14.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djambala (1,498 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 52 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Republic of the Congo (geoBoundaries ADM2). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 18. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 1,368 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 9 of 18, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.3 mm.

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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Name: Okoyo → Djambala.
  2. Last day with fire: 20 July 2024 → 22 July 2024.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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?

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

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 July 2024 to 20 July 2024. 34 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 (Map Library 2007, nombres de Wikidata) (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.