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Idiofa fire, 20 July 2020 Idiofa, Bulungu

Out · last detection 3 Aug 2020, 11:22 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2020 in Idiofa, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,194 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 126th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 79 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2020, of 165.

Burnt area
7,194ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
20 Jul 2020 – 2 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
20 Jul
2020
Heat detections
381
in a single hotspot: 116 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul2 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425262728293031123

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
31km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,896 ha in 2016, 5,422 ha in 2017, 4,678 ha in 2018, 3,149 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,696 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Idiofa where it started
    4,506 ha reached on 16 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Bulungu
    2,732 ha reached on 24 Jul
    0.2 %

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)
20 Jul 32.8 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jul 33.5 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Jul 33.4 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Jul 32.6 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Jul 32.3 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Jul 32.3 °C 44 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
26 Jul 31.9 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Jul 30.8 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
28 Jul 32.3 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Jul 33.2 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
30 Jul 33.6 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
31 Jul 33.6 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Aug 32.6 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Aug 32.8 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Aug after 33.3 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Aug after 31.9 °C 47 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
5 Aug after 32.2 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
6 Aug after 32.7 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Aug after 32.8 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Aug after 32.5 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 Aug after 34.2 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Aug after 32.6 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Aug after 33.1 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Aug after 32.9 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2020
After · 9 Aug 2020

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 · 381Every 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 Idiofa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 July 2020 and 2 August 2020: 14 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 7,194 hectares (71.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Idiofa (4,506 ha, 0.2 %); Bulungu (2,732 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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

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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.