How long did the Kabalo fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 June 2018 and 19 July 2018: 23 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 67,841 hectares (678.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Kabalo (68,272 ha, 4.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.

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 · 2018-06-27 → 2018-07-19

Kabalo fire, June 2018 Kabalo

Out · last detection 20 Jul 2018, 23:33 UTC

The fire started on 27 June 2018 in Kabalo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 67,841 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the largest fire in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 2 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2018, of 128.

Burnt area: 67,841ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 23days; 27 Jun 2018 – 19 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; territories
Started on: 27 Jun; 2018
Heat detections: 2,779; in a single hotspot: 402 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Energy released: 47.8GW; sum of detected power

Play back 20 Jul 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jun19 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

272829301234567891011121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

49km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 25,125 ha in 2016, 28,164 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 42,404 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Kabalo where it started

68,272 ha reached on 26 Jun

4.6 %

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)
26 Jun	34.1 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
27 Jun	35.0 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
28 Jun	34.4 °C	22 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
29 Jun	35.9 °C	17 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
30 Jun	35.3 °C	20 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
1 Jul	35.1 °C	22 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
2 Jul	34.9 °C	19 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
3 Jul	36.1 °C	18 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
4 Jul	34.9 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
5 Jul	33.6 °C	20 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
6 Jul	33.2 °C	20 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
7 Jul	33.2 °C	22 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
8 Jul	33.6 °C	21 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
9 Jul	34.3 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
10 Jul	35.3 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
11 Jul	35.1 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
12 Jul	35.3 °C	19 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
13 Jul	34.9 °C	18 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
14 Jul	35.8 °C	16 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
15 Jul	36.2 °C	18 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
16 Jul	34.1 °C	20 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
17 Jul	32.6 °C	22 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
18 Jul	32.3 °C	24 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
19 Jul	32.6 °C	21 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
20 Jul after	33.8 °C	19 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
21 Jul after	34.7 °C	20 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
22 Jul after	34.5 °C	20 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
23 Jul after	34.0 °C	18 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
24 Jul after	33.3 °C	17 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
25 Jul after	33.8 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
26 Jul after	33.6 °C	20 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
27 Jul after	33.5 °C	28 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
28 Jul after	32.6 °C	29 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
29 Jul after	34.6 °C	22 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
30 Jul after	34.8 °C	24 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
31 Jul after	33.8 °C	30 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
1 Aug after	32.9 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
2 Aug after	33.3 °C	38 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
3 Aug after	34.3 °C	33 %	26 km/h	0.2 mm	High 32
4 Aug after	36.5 °C	19 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 20 Jun 2018

After · 26 Jul 2018

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 · 2,779Every 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 Kabalo fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 June 2018 and 19 July 2018: 23 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 67,841 hectares (678.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Kabalo (68,272 ha, 4.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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