Kasongo-Lunda fire, August 2022 Kasongo-Lunda
The fire started on 13 August 2022 in Kasongo-Lunda, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,047 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 212th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 219 with a page). Number 104 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2022, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 5,047ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 13 Aug 2022 – 20 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 13 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 259
- in a single hotspot: 69 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 21 Aug.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,091 ha in 2016, 3,482 ha in 2017, 2,716 ha in 2018, 3,851 ha in 2019, 2,632 ha in 2020, 1,377 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,407 ha that had burned before.
- 3,851 ha Kasongo-Lunda fire, August 2019 14,415 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,632 ha Kasongo-Lunda fire, August 2020 13,236 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,129 ha Kasongo-Lunda fire, August 2018 6,940 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kasongo-Lunda where it started5,079 ha reached on 11 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug | 29.3 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Aug | 30.4 °C | 33 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Aug | 29.0 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Aug | 28.1 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Aug | 29.0 °C | 47 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Aug | 30.3 °C | 42 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 19 Aug | 29.3 °C | 43 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Aug | 29.5 °C | 39 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Aug after | 29.6 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 2.4 mm | Low 8 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 259Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 43,605 haKasongo-Lunda10 August 2024 · 18 days · 4 km away
- 33,892 haKasongo-Lunda11 August 2025 · 16 days · 9 km away
- 49,340 haKasongo-Lunda5 August 2026 · 23 days · 12 km away
- 14,577 haKasongo-Lunda13 August 2026 · 16 days · 23 km away
- 22,145 haKasongo-Lunda7 August 2026 · 21 days · 32 km away
- 18,588 haKasongo-Lunda5 August 2020 · 15 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kasongo-Lunda fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 August 2022 and 20 August 2022: 8 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 5,047 hectares (50.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kasongo-Lunda (5,079 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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
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.