How long did the Dungu fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2016 and 14 February 2016: 28 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 38,123 hectares (381.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Dungu (38,388 ha, 1.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.

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 · 2016-01-18 → 2016-02-14

Dungu fire, 18 January 2016 Dungu

Out · last detection 15 Feb 2016, 23:45 UTC

The fire started on 18 January 2016 in Dungu, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 38,123 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 13th largest in Upper Uele since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 4 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area: 38,123ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 28days; 18 Jan 2016 – 14 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; territories
Started on: 18 Jan; 2016
Heat detections: 1,651; in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start: 32; High · FWI index
Energy released: 13.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 15 Feb 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jan14 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

18202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

39°high

44km/h · peak gust

7%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 21 Feb.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Dungu where it started

38,388 ha reached on 11 Jan

1.1 %

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)
11 Jan	35.6 °C	19 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
12 Jan	35.2 °C	22 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
13 Jan	33.8 °C	31 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	High 29
14 Jan	35.3 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
15 Jan	33.9 °C	20 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
16 Jan	34.4 °C	30 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
17 Jan	34.2 °C	27 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
18 Jan	34.7 °C	22 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
19 Jan	34.8 °C	22 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
20 Jan	35.4 °C	12 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
21 Jan	35.7 °C	12 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
22 Jan	34.8 °C	13 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Jan	34.9 °C	25 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
24 Jan	34.6 °C	22 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
25 Jan	34.0 °C	13 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
26 Jan	33.6 °C	13 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
27 Jan	32.0 °C	12 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
28 Jan	32.5 °C	12 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
29 Jan	31.5 °C	12 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
30 Jan	33.0 °C	13 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
31 Jan	33.5 °C	13 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
1 Feb	34.7 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
2 Feb	34.7 °C	14 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
3 Feb	36.1 °C	14 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
4 Feb	36.7 °C	14 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
5 Feb	37.9 °C	13 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
6 Feb	38.0 °C	13 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
7 Feb	37.4 °C	13 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
8 Feb	36.1 °C	12 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
9 Feb	36.1 °C	9 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
10 Feb	37.0 °C	7 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
11 Feb	36.3 °C	9 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
12 Feb	36.2 °C	7 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
13 Feb	36.8 °C	10 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
14 Feb	36.9 °C	12 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
15 Feb after	38.0 °C	13 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
16 Feb after	39.0 °C	14 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
17 Feb after	36.4 °C	22 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
18 Feb after	35.6 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
19 Feb after	38.3 °C	16 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
20 Feb after	37.1 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
21 Feb after	35.7 °C	33 %	32 km/h	1.3 mm	High 27

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Jan 2016

After · 21 Feb 2016

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 · 1,651Every 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 Dungu fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 January 2016 and 14 February 2016: 28 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 38,123 hectares (381.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Dungu (38,388 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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.

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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.

Where it burned