Skip to content
worldfires
CD · Congo - Kinshasa · →

Kabongo fire, 25 July 2018 Kabongo, Kamina

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2018, 11:39 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2018 in Kabongo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,563 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 52th largest in Haut-Lomami since 2016 (of 172 with a page). Number 36 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2018, of 128.

Burnt area
7,563ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
25 Jul 2018 – 27 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
25 Jul
2018
Heat detections
216
in a single hotspot: 340 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

25262728

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
40km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,293 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kabongo where it started
    5,764 ha reached on 25 Jul
    0.3 %
  2. Kamina
    1,850 ha reached on 25 Jul
    0.0 %

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)
25 Jul 30.3 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jul 31.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jul 31.4 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Jul after 28.3 °C 37 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jul after 29.9 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Jul after 30.6 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Jul after 32.0 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Aug after 30.3 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Aug after 31.5 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Aug after 32.0 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Aug after 33.6 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Aug after 34.2 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Aug after 33.2 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2018
After · 3 Aug 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 · 216Every 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 Kabongo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 July 2018 and 27 July 2018: 3 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 7,563 hectares (75.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kabongo (5,764 ha, 0.3 %); Kamina (1,850 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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

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 (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.