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Kasongo fire, 7 July 2018 Kongolo, Kasongo

Out · last detection 12 Jul 2018, 11:40 UTC

The fire started on 7 July 2018 in Kasongo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,666 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Maniema since 2016 (of 22 with a page). Number 84 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2018, of 128.

Burnt area
5,666ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
7 Jul 2018 – 11 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
7 Jul
2018
Heat detections
125
in a single hotspot: 444 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jul11 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

789101112

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
48km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 702 ha in 2016, 729 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,316 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kongolo
    2,933 ha reached on 8 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Kasongo where it started
    2,772 ha reached on 7 Jul
    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)
7 Jul 34.1 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Jul 34.5 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Jul 35.5 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Jul 36.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Jul 36.0 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jul after 35.7 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Jul after 35.4 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Jul after 36.5 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Jul after 36.7 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jul after 34.7 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jul after 33.9 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jul after 33.7 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Jul after 33.7 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Jul after 34.9 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Jul after 35.8 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jun 2018
After · 18 Jul 2018

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 · 125Every 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 Kasongo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 July 2018 and 11 July 2018: 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 5,666 hectares (56.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kongolo (2,933 ha, 0.2 %); Kasongo (2,772 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 48 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.

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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.