Dungu fire, 22 January 2020 Dungu, Faradje
The fire started on 22 January 2020 in Dungu, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 123,194 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
It is the largest fire in Upper Uele since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 2 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2020, of 165.
- Burnt area
- 123,194ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 22 Jan 2020 – 30 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 22 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 3,732
- in a single hotspot: 346 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 50.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.5 mm on 31 Jan.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 66,378 ha in 2016, 73,430 ha in 2017, 37,552 ha in 2018, 65,581 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 112,537 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Dungu where it started116,228 ha reached on 22 Jan3.4 %
-
7,821 ha reached on 22 Jan0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jan | 33.9 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Jan | 33.1 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Jan | 32.9 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Jan | 33.7 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Jan | 34.1 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 27 Jan | 34.8 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 28 Jan | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Jan | 35.7 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Jan | 34.4 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Jan after | 28.9 °C | 47 % | 29 km/h | 5.5 mm | Very low 4 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 3,732Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dungu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 January 2020 and 30 January 2020: 9 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 123,194 hectares (1,231.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dungu (116,228 ha, 3.4 %); Faradje (7,821 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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
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
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.