How long did the Idiofa fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 July 2017 and 4 August 2017: 17 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 11,916 hectares (119.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Idiofa (7,027 ha, 0.4 %); Bulungu (4,962 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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.

CD · Congo - Kinshasa · 2017-07-19 → 2017-08-04

Idiofa fire, 19 July 2017 Idiofa, Bulungu

Out · last detection 4 Aug 2017, 11:53 UTC

The fire started on 19 July 2017 in Idiofa, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,916 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 54th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 14 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area: 11,916ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 19 Jul 2017 – 4 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; territories
Started on: 19 Jul; 2017
Heat detections: 565; in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start: 4; Very low · FWI index
Energy released: 8.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 4 Aug 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jul4 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252627282930311234

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

34km/h · peak gust

35%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.8 mm on 20 Aug.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,122 ha in 2016.

5,561 ha Idiofa fire, July 2016 16,773 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Idiofa where it started

7,027 ha reached on 14 Jul

0.4 %
Bulungu

4,962 ha reached on 14 Jul

0.4 %

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 Jul	31.3 °C	50 %	26 km/h	3.8 mm	Very low 4
15 Jul	29.9 °C	56 %	24 km/h	1.2 mm	Very low 5
16 Jul	31.7 °C	50 %	26 km/h	0.4 mm	Low 11
17 Jul	31.7 °C	45 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
18 Jul	30.0 °C	58 %	26 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 14
19 Jul	32.1 °C	48 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
20 Jul	32.0 °C	48 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
21 Jul	32.5 °C	44 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
22 Jul	31.5 °C	49 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
23 Jul	32.3 °C	43 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
24 Jul	32.4 °C	35 %	31 km/h	0.2 mm	High 23
25 Jul	32.7 °C	39 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	High 24
26 Jul	31.5 °C	44 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
27 Jul	31.8 °C	48 %	19 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 21
28 Jul	33.5 °C	39 %	28 km/h	0.7 mm	High 22
29 Jul	29.2 °C	55 %	26 km/h	6.7 mm	Very low 3
30 Jul	31.9 °C	46 %	23 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 11
31 Jul	32.2 °C	42 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
1 Aug	32.7 °C	41 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
2 Aug	32.5 °C	44 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 20
3 Aug	32.5 °C	49 %	28 km/h	6.0 mm	Very low 3
4 Aug	31.5 °C	51 %	31 km/h	3.3 mm	Very low 4
5 Aug after	27.8 °C	63 %	30 km/h	3.7 mm	Very low 2
6 Aug after	29.3 °C	56 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
7 Aug after	33.2 °C	41 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
8 Aug after	31.8 °C	47 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 13
9 Aug after	31.0 °C	50 %	28 km/h	3.0 mm	Very low 4
10 Aug after	30.3 °C	53 %	28 km/h	0.3 mm	Low 8
11 Aug after	30.9 °C	50 %	26 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 12
12 Aug after	32.0 °C	52 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
13 Aug after	32.3 °C	44 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
14 Aug after	32.7 °C	40 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
15 Aug after	33.2 °C	40 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
16 Aug after	33.1 °C	43 %	29 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 19
17 Aug after	32.2 °C	40 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
18 Aug after	30.9 °C	48 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 19
19 Aug after	32.4 °C	42 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
20 Aug after	28.1 °C	64 %	29 km/h	4.8 mm	Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 12 Jul 2017

After · 11 Aug 2017

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 · 565Every 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 Idiofa fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 July 2017 and 4 August 2017: 17 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 11,916 hectares (119.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Idiofa (7,027 ha, 0.4 %); Bulungu (4,962 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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

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