How long did the Kapanga fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 July 2017 and 9 July 2017: 9 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 14,581 hectares (145.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kapanga (11,775 ha, 0.5 %); Luiza (2,886 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 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.

CD · Congo - Kinshasa · 2017-07-01 → 2017-07-09

Kapanga fire, 1 July 2017 Kapanga, Luiza

Out · last detection 10 Jul 2017, 00:24 UTC

The fire started on 1 July 2017 in Kapanga, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,581 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Lualaba since 2016 (of 91 with a page). Number 8 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area: 14,581ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 9days; 1 Jul 2017 – 9 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; territories
Started on: 1 Jul; 2017
Heat detections: 559; in a single hotspot: 186 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 5.7GW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Jul 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jul9 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

12345678910

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

46km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,135 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

Kapanga where it started

11,775 ha reached on 24 Jun

0.5 %
Luiza

2,886 ha reached on 25 Jun

0.2 %

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)
24 Jun	32.2 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
25 Jun	32.9 °C	22 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
26 Jun	33.7 °C	16 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
27 Jun	32.6 °C	16 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
28 Jun	31.9 °C	18 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
29 Jun	30.7 °C	23 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
30 Jun	31.9 °C	21 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
1 Jul	32.4 °C	17 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
2 Jul	31.8 °C	19 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
3 Jul	33.2 °C	18 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
4 Jul	32.0 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
5 Jul	31.1 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
6 Jul	30.7 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
7 Jul	27.9 °C	42 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
8 Jul	32.2 °C	26 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
9 Jul	32.3 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
10 Jul after	33.0 °C	18 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
11 Jul after	30.6 °C	20 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
12 Jul after	28.8 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.3 mm	High 32
13 Jul after	31.6 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
14 Jul after	31.0 °C	22 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
15 Jul after	32.2 °C	20 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
16 Jul after	32.1 °C	19 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
17 Jul after	33.4 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Jul after	32.1 °C	16 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
19 Jul after	32.1 °C	22 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Jul after	33.2 °C	17 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
21 Jul after	32.4 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
22 Jul after	32.8 °C	23 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Jul after	31.1 °C	32 %	20 km/h	0.2 mm	High 37
24 Jul after	32.1 °C	23 %	27 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 · 24 Jun 2017

After · 16 Jul 2017

Before After

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 · 559Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kapanga fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 July 2017 and 9 July 2017: 9 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 14,581 hectares (145.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kapanga (11,775 ha, 0.5 %); Luiza (2,886 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned