How long did the Idiofa fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 July 2020 and 12 August 2020: 24 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 10,682 hectares (106.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gungu (7,255 ha, 0.5 %); Idiofa (3,499 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.

CD · Congo - Kinshasa · 2020-07-20 → 2020-08-12

Idiofa fire, 20 July 2020 Gungu, Idiofa

Out · last detection 13 Aug 2020, 11:34 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2020 in Idiofa, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,682 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 65th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 38 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2020, of 165.

Burnt area: 10,682ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 24days; 20 Jul 2020 – 12 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit: 2; territories
Started on: 20 Jul; 2020
Heat detections: 482; in a single hotspot: 201 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 5.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 13 Aug 2020

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

20212223242526272829303112345678910111213

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

45km/h · peak gust

23%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 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

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,072 ha in 2016, 2,462 ha in 2017, 1,391 ha in 2018, 1,990 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,130 ha that had burned before.

6,917 ha Gungu fire, July 2016 10,931 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Gungu

7,255 ha reached on 16 Jul

0.5 %
Idiofa where it started

3,499 ha reached on 14 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)
14 Jul	31.7 °C	41 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
15 Jul	30.8 °C	49 %	23 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 18
16 Jul	30.8 °C	44 %	24 km/h	0.2 mm	High 22
17 Jul	31.0 °C	25 %	45 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 39
18 Jul	30.7 °C	25 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
19 Jul	30.8 °C	23 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
20 Jul	31.6 °C	23 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
21 Jul	32.9 °C	23 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
22 Jul	33.3 °C	23 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
23 Jul	32.3 °C	25 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
24 Jul	32.2 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Jul	32.9 °C	31 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
26 Jul	32.4 °C	24 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
27 Jul	31.2 °C	32 %	21 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
28 Jul	32.2 °C	27 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
29 Jul	31.9 °C	33 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
30 Jul	33.2 °C	31 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
31 Jul	33.8 °C	24 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
1 Aug	33.7 °C	27 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
2 Aug	32.7 °C	37 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
3 Aug	32.4 °C	40 %	21 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
4 Aug	30.7 °C	48 %	22 km/h	0.3 mm	High 26
5 Aug	30.7 °C	45 %	27 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 21
6 Aug	31.9 °C	43 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
7 Aug	31.7 °C	46 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	High 23
8 Aug	31.1 °C	46 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	High 24
9 Aug	32.4 °C	40 %	26 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
10 Aug	31.2 °C	44 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
11 Aug	32.9 °C	40 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
12 Aug	32.2 °C	43 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
13 Aug after	32.0 °C	43 %	21 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
14 Aug after	30.5 °C	51 %	22 km/h	0.6 mm	High 21
15 Aug after	31.0 °C	52 %	27 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 21
16 Aug after	33.2 °C	41 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
17 Aug after	32.8 °C	47 %	31 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
18 Aug after	33.4 °C	43 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
19 Aug after	32.2 °C	47 %	36 km/h	0.6 mm	High 25
20 Aug after	32.7 °C	47 %	21 km/h	4.8 mm	Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Jul 2020

After · 19 Aug 2020

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 · 482Every 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 20 July 2020 and 12 August 2020: 24 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 10,682 hectares (106.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gungu (7,255 ha, 0.5 %); Idiofa (3,499 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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

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