Skip to content
worldfires
CD · Congo - Kinshasa · →

Kahemba fire, 20 June 2017 Kahemba

Out · last detection 30 Jun 2017, 12:49 UTC

The fire started on 20 June 2017 in Kahemba, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,966 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 127th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 219 with a page). Number 89 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area
5,966ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
20 Jun 2017 – 29 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
20 Jun
2017
Heat detections
234
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jun29 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
46km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,058 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kahemba where it started
    6,003 ha reached on 13 Jun
    0.3 %

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)
20 Jun 31.5 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jun 31.2 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jun 31.5 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Jun 30.5 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jun 31.4 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jun 31.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jun 31.1 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jun 32.9 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Jun 31.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jun 30.4 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Jun after 31.5 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Jul after 32.9 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Jul after 32.1 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Jul after 30.7 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Jul after 32.3 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Jul after 30.9 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Jul after 30.8 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Jul after 30.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jul after 30.7 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Jul after 31.6 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jun 2017
After · 6 Jul 2017

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 · 234Every 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 Kahemba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 June 2017 and 29 June 2017: 10 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 5,966 hectares (59.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kahemba (6,003 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.