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Dungu fire, 14 January 2023 Dungu, Faradje

Out · last detection 22 Jan 2023, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 14 January 2023 in Dungu, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 35,499 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Upper Uele since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 4 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2023, of 76.

Burnt area
35,499ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
14 Jan 2023 – 22 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
14 Jan
2023
Heat detections
1,902
in a single hotspot: 243 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
25.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jan 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jan22 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
41km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 1 Feb.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17,468 ha in 2016, 27,459 ha in 2017, 7,691 ha in 2018, 24,126 ha in 2019, 24,734 ha in 2020, 21,305 ha in 2021, 11,385 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 35,609 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dungu where it started
    35,097 ha reached on 9 Jan
    1.0 %
  2. Faradje
    652 ha reached on 12 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
14 Jan 34.0 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Jan 34.3 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Jan 34.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Jan 35.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Jan 35.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Jan 35.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Jan 35.3 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Jan 36.6 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jan 33.3 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jan after 35.4 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jan after 34.1 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jan after 34.2 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jan after 32.5 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
27 Jan after 36.1 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jan after 36.5 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jan after 33.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jan after 34.4 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jan after 35.6 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Feb after 32.6 °C 33 % 36 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jan 2023
After · 29 Jan 2023

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 · 1,902Every 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 14 January 2023 and 22 January 2023: 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 35,499 hectares (355.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dungu (35,097 ha, 1.0 %); Faradje (652 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.

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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.