Skip to content
worldfires
CG · Congo - Brazzaville · →

Impfondo fire, 19 August 2018 Impfondo

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2018, 23:59 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2018 in Impfondo, Congo - Brazzaville, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,897 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 12th largest in Bouenza since 2016 (of 180 with a page). The largest in Congo - Brazzaville in 2018, of 62.

Burnt area
2,897ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Aug 2018 – 25 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Aug
2018
Heat detections
65
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
877MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

21222425

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
34km/h · peak gust
47%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 420 ha in 2016, 93 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Impfondo where it started
    2,917 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
19 Aug 29.2 °C 56 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
20 Aug 27.4 °C 60 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
21 Aug 30.2 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Aug 29.1 °C 51 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
23 Aug 30.3 °C 49 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Aug 30.6 °C 48 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 Aug 28.0 °C 60 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Aug after 25.8 °C 71 % 21 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 14
27 Aug after 31.6 °C 51 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
28 Aug after 28.2 °C 62 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
29 Aug after 26.3 °C 65 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
30 Aug after 27.3 °C 62 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
31 Aug after 29.3 °C 58 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
1 Sept after 26.9 °C 62 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
2 Sept after 29.5 °C 53 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
3 Sept after 31.1 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 18
4 Sept after 27.9 °C 60 % 27 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2018
After · 1 Sept 2018

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 · 65Every 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 - Brazzaville ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Impfondo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2018 and 25 August 2018: 7 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 2,897 hectares (29.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Impfondo (2,917 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 47 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Congo - Brazzaville (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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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 (Public Domain). 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.