Kasongo-Lunda fire, 4 July 2024 Kasongo-Lunda
The fire started on 4 July 2024 in Kasongo-Lunda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,840 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 133th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 219 with a page). Number 94 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2024, of 133.
- Burnt area
- 5,840ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 4 Jul 2024 – 7 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 4 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 140
- in a single hotspot: 310 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.5GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,544 ha in 2016, 611 ha in 2017, 2,677 ha in 2018, 3,198 ha in 2019, 1,563 ha in 2020, 1,243 ha in 2021, 893 ha in 2022, 95 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,294 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Kasongo-Lunda where it started5,887 ha reached on 4 Jul0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Jul | 34.1 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Jul | 33.2 °C | 21 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Jul | 33.4 °C | 21 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Jul | 32.8 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 8 Jul after | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 9 Jul after | 32.9 °C | 20 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 10 Jul after | 33.8 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Jul after | 33.7 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Jul after | 34.0 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Jul after | 33.8 °C | 19 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Jul after | 35.4 °C | 12 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Jul after | 32.6 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Jul after | 32.7 °C | 23 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 26 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 5 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 73 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 140Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kasongo-Lunda fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 July 2024 and 7 July 2024: 4 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 5,840 hectares (58.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kasongo-Lunda (5,887 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Democratic Republic of the Congo (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.