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Kamina fire, August 2020 Kamina, Kabongo

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2020, 23:59 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2020 in Kamina, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,958 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 106th largest in Haut-Lomami since 2016 (of 172 with a page). Number 114 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2020, of 165.

Burnt area
5,958ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
10 Aug 2020 – 14 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
10 Aug
2020
Heat detections
159
in a single hotspot: 201 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
26km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,206 ha in 2016, 2,485 ha in 2017, 826 ha in 2018, 1,617 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,941 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kamina where it started
    4,763 ha reached on 10 Aug
    0.1 %
  2. Kabongo
    1,227 ha reached on 10 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
10 Aug 32.6 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Aug 33.6 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug 33.9 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Aug 34.5 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Aug 33.2 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Aug after 33.2 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Aug after 34.3 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Aug after 35.0 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Aug after 35.1 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Aug after 35.5 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Aug after 32.8 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
21 Aug after 34.8 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Aug after 32.9 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Aug after 33.3 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Aug after 29.5 °C 44 % 25 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2020
After · 21 Aug 2020

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 · 159Every 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 Kamina fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 August 2020 and 14 August 2020: 5 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 5,958 hectares (59.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kamina (4,763 ha, 0.1 %); Kabongo (1,227 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 26 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.

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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.