Burned area
satellite only1,225ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 6 Feb 2016 – 23 Feb 2016
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CG · Republic of the Congo · –
Dongou fire, February 2016 Dongou
Out · last detection 22 Feb 2016, 12:15 UTC
The fire started on 6 February 2016 in Dongou, Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
Number 56 in Republic of the Congo in 2016, of 98.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Dongou · 2024Dongou · 2017
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-05matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only18days
6 Feb 2016 to 23 Feb 2016: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 22 Feb 2016, 12:15 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only6 Feb 2016
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 6 Feb 2016
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only62
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 84 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 6 Feb 2016 – 23 Feb 2016
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only342MW
Total radiative power on 11 February 2016; hotspots that day: 28.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 11 Feb 2016
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model41.5FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 6 Feb 2016, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model34.7°C · 49% RH
High of 34.7 °C and minimum humidity of 49% on 19 February 2016; gusts of 33 km/h on 7 February 2016.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 6 Feb 2016 – 23 Feb 2016
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logName: Ngabé → Dongou.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 17 February 2016 → 23 February 2016.
-
logStart date: 9 February 2016 → 6 February 2016.
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/dongou-2016-02?v=2026-11-05A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire dongou-2016-02.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-02-06 | 3 | 17 | 34.3 | 22.7 | 27 | 13.9 | 30.2 | 0 | 41.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-07 | 0 | 0 | 30.9 | 21.7 | 48 | 13.1 | 32.8 | 0 | 28.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-08 | 2 | 6 | 32.1 | 22.8 | 39 | 10 | 20.2 | 0 | 26.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-09 | 2 | 16 | 33.4 | 21.5 | 27 | 10.2 | 23.4 | 0 | 32 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-10 | 4 | 14 | 31.4 | 20.6 | 29 | 9 | 18.4 | 0 | 31.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-11 | 28 | 342 | 33.1 | 18.4 | 22 | 8.4 | 20.2 | 0 | 33.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-12 | 3 | 4 | 30.4 | 18.5 | 31 | 9 | 19.1 | 0 | 33.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-13 | 0 | 0 | 32.5 | 18.9 | 27 | 9.2 | 21.2 | 0 | 33.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-14 | 7 | 38 | 32.7 | 19.8 | 35 | 13.3 | 26.3 | 0 | 35.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-15 | 4 | 4 | 33.3 | 21 | 39 | 13 | 26.3 | 0 | 33.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-16 | 4 | 56 | 33.4 | 22.5 | 47 | 11.4 | 23.4 | 0 | 28.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-17 | 2 | 51 | 34.2 | 25.7 | 46 | 13 | 22.7 | 0 | 29.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-18 | 0 | 0 | 33.5 | 24.9 | 56 | 9.7 | 24.5 | 0.2 | 23.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-19 | 0 | 0 | 34.7 | 25.3 | 49 | 10.8 | 27.7 | 0 | 24.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-02-20 | 0 | 0 | 33.2 | 25 | 53 | 11.9 | 31 | 3.7 | 7.2 | bajo | 1 |
| 2016-02-21 | 0 | 0 | 32.8 | 24.7 | 57 | 11.2 | 23 | 0.7 | 12.8 | moderado | 1 |
| 2016-02-22 | 3 | 18 | 32.4 | 25 | 59 | 10.9 | 23.4 | 0 | 15.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2016-02-23 | 0 | 0 | 32.3 | 24.8 | 62 | 13.2 | 32.8 | 2.2 | 7.6 | bajo | 1 |
| 2016-02-24 | 0 | 0 | 31.3 | 24.8 | 65 | 10 | 22 | 1 | 8.1 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 1,225ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 6 Feb 2016 – 23 Feb 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Feb
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 62
- in a single hotspot: 84 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 52MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
6 Feb23 Feb
22 Feb 2016
How it evolved, day by day
6 Feb
11 Feb
17 Feb
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
35°high
33km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 24 Feb.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Dongou where it started1,233 ha reached on 6 Feb0.0 %
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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 12 % of the area in Republic of the Congo
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Feb | 34.3 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Feb | 30.9 °C | 48 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Feb | 32.1 °C | 39 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Feb | 33.4 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Feb | 31.4 °C | 29 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Feb | 33.1 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Feb | 30.4 °C | 31 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Feb | 32.5 °C | 27 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Feb | 32.7 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Feb | 33.3 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Feb | 33.4 °C | 47 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Feb | 34.2 °C | 46 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Feb | 33.5 °C | 56 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 24 |
| 19 Feb | 34.7 °C | 49 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 20 Feb | 33.2 °C | 53 % | 31 km/h | 3.7 mm | Low 7 |
| 21 Feb | 32.8 °C | 57 % | 23 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 22 Feb | 32.4 °C | 59 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 23 Feb | 32.3 °C | 62 % | 33 km/h | 2.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 24 Feb after | 31.3 °C | 65 % | 22 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 8 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 41.5, a minimum humidity of 27% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2017: 1.
FWI at the start
41.5
Minimum humidity
27 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Dongou fire, February 2016
1,225 ha
18 days
FWI 41.5
Min. humidity 27 %
Dongou fire, March 2024
1,012 ha
2 days
FWI 28.1
Min. humidity 34 %
14 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.6 mm on 8 Mar.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 1. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
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
1.0 mmfirst rain
24 Febthe day after it ended
33km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 23 Feb, and on 24 Feb 1.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.
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 2017.
- 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 30 Jan 2016
After · 1 Mar 2016
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 62Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dongou fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 February 2016 to 23 February 2016 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 February 2016 to 17 February 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,225 hectares (12.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dongou (1,233 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 33 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 Republic of the Congo (geoBoundaries ADM2). 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
History of this page · 3 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Name: Ngabé → Dongou.
- Last day with fire: 17 February 2016 → 23 February 2016.
- Start date: 9 February 2016 → 6 February 2016.
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
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 9 February 2016 to 17 February 2016. 62 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.
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.