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Dungu fire, 2 January 2016 Dungu

Out · last detection 15 Jan 2016, 23:26 UTC

The fire started on 2 January 2016 in Dungu, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 38,657 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 12th largest in Upper Uele since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 3 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area
38,657ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
2 Jan 2016 – 14 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
2 Jan
2016
Heat detections
1,319
in a single hotspot: 137 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
15.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jan14 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

34567891011121415

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
42km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Dungu where it started
    38,931 ha reached on 3 Jan
    1.2 %

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)
2 Jan 34.5 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Jan 33.6 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Jan 34.1 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Jan 33.7 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Jan 33.0 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Jan 35.9 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Jan 36.4 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Jan 35.7 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Jan 36.0 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Jan 35.4 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Jan 35.0 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Jan 33.8 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
14 Jan 34.8 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Jan after 33.8 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Jan after 34.0 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Jan after 33.5 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Jan after 34.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jan after 34.7 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jan after 35.2 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jan after 35.4 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jan after 34.3 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Jan after 34.8 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jan after 34.1 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Jan after 34.0 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Jan after 33.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Jan after 31.8 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Jan after 32.2 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Dec 2015
After · 21 Jan 2016

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 · 1,319Every 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 Dungu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 January 2016 and 14 January 2016: 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 38,657 hectares (386.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dungu (38,931 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.