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Kambove fire, August 2017 Kambove

Out · last detection 5 Sept 2017, 11:51 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2017 in Kambove, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,005 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Haut-Katanga since 2016 (of 94 with a page). Number 23 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area
10,005ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
20 Aug 2017 – 4 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
20 Aug
2017
Heat detections
636
in a single hotspot: 137 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug4 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

20212223242526272829303112345

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
47km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,105 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kambove where it started
    9,402 ha reached on 13 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
13 Aug 25.2 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Aug 25.8 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Aug 26.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Aug 27.8 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Aug 28.5 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug 28.2 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Aug 28.2 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug 26.2 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Aug 25.3 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Aug 26.9 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug 29.0 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Aug 30.1 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Aug 29.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 28.8 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Aug 28.4 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Aug 27.4 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Aug 25.9 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug 27.6 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug 29.0 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Sept 29.1 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept 28.0 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Sept 27.8 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept 26.7 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept after 27.7 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Sept after 29.8 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Sept after 29.6 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Sept after 28.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept after 29.5 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept after 29.8 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Sept after 29.6 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Sept after 29.8 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Sept after 29.0 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Sept after 29.6 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept after 30.2 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Sept after 30.4 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Sept after 30.6 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Sept after 31.3 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept after 31.1 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Sept after 30.7 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Aug 2017
After · 11 Sept 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 · 636Every 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 Kambove fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 August 2017 and 4 September 2017: 16 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 10,005 hectares (100.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kambove (9,402 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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

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.