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Kabongo fire, 28 July 2021 Kabongo, Kamina

Out · last detection 3 Aug 2021, 12:17 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2021 in Kabongo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,264 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 43th largest in Haut-Lomami since 2016 (of 172 with a page). Number 28 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2021, of 97.

Burnt area
8,264ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
28 Jul 2021 – 4 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
28 Jul
2021
Heat detections
306
in a single hotspot: 565 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
7.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul4 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

28293031123

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
35km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,147 ha in 2016, 1,975 ha in 2017, 3,938 ha in 2018, 2,193 ha in 2019, 1,430 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,975 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kabongo where it started
    8,213 ha reached on 24 Jul
    0.4 %
  2. Kamina
    120 ha reached on 1 Aug
    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)
28 Jul 31.1 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Jul 32.2 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jul 32.2 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Jul 30.7 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug 30.9 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Aug 31.2 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Aug 32.3 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Aug 32.3 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Aug after 33.1 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Aug after 33.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Aug after 32.8 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Aug after 31.8 °C 21 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug after 32.9 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug after 33.1 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Aug after 32.2 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Aug after 33.5 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Aug after 34.4 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Aug after 31.0 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2021
After · 11 Aug 2021

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 · 306Every 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 28 July 2021 and 4 August 2021: 8 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 8,264 hectares (82.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kabongo (8,213 ha, 0.4 %); Kamina (120 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

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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.