Burned area
satellite only10,006ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 31 Jul 2024 – 30 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CD · Democratic Republic of the Congo · –
Kasongo-Lunda fire, 31 July 2024 Kasongo-Lunda
Out · last detection 30 Aug 2024, 00:25 UTC
The fire started on 31 July 2024 in Kasongo-Lunda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,006 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 15th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 124 with a page). Number 32 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2024, of 133.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-05matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only31days
31 Jul 2024 to 30 Aug 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 30 Aug 2024, 00:25 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only31 Jul 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 31 Jul 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only519
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 111 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 31 Jul 2024 – 30 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,732MW
Total radiative power on 17 August 2024; hotspots that day: 149.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 17 Aug 2024
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model21.7FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 31 Jul 2024, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model32.5°C · 32% RH
High of 32.5 °C and minimum humidity of 32% on 26 August 2024; gusts of 28 km/h on 19 August 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 31 Jul 2024 – 30 Aug 2024
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logLast day with fire: 23 August 2024 → 30 August 2024.
-
logStart date: 5 August 2024 → 31 July 2024.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 30 August 2024 → 23 August 2024.
-
logStart date: 31 July 2024 → 5 August 2024.
-
logLast day with fire: 23 August 2024 → 30 August 2024.
-
logStart date: 5 August 2024 → 31 July 2024.
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/kasongo-lunda-2024-07-5?v=2026-11-05A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire kasongo-lunda-2024-07-5.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-07-31 | 1 | 6 | 29.6 | 16.8 | 46 | 9.1 | 20.2 | 0 | 21.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-01 | 4 | 37 | 27.8 | 16.8 | 52 | 8.8 | 21.2 | 0 | 20.8 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-02 | 3 | 16 | 29.4 | 17.8 | 51 | 6.8 | 25.2 | 0.2 | 19.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-03 | 1 | 3 | 30.3 | 18.5 | 41 | 8.3 | 18.4 | 0 | 21.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-04 | 5 | 33 | 28.2 | 19.5 | 49 | 10.5 | 19.1 | 0 | 22.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-05 | 22 | 223 | 27.5 | 18.1 | 53 | 11.7 | 25.2 | 0 | 23.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-06 | 10 | 47 | 28.7 | 18.4 | 49 | 11 | 24.8 | 0 | 21.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-07 | 8 | 42 | 28.5 | 18.7 | 50 | 9.4 | 22 | 0 | 21.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-08 | 1 | 0 | 30.4 | 17.6 | 42 | 10.1 | 20.9 | 0 | 21.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-09 | 4 | 24 | 30.5 | 18 | 43 | 10 | 20.9 | 0 | 21.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-10 | 13 | 169 | 29.6 | 18 | 49 | 9 | 21.2 | 0 | 21.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-11 | 4 | 34 | 28.5 | 18 | 47 | 7.6 | 19.8 | 0 | 22.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-12 | 26 | 282 | 27.6 | 18.3 | 53 | 12 | 24.1 | 0 | 20.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-13 | 41 | 246 | 28.3 | 17.6 | 52 | 10.3 | 21.2 | 0 | 20.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-14 | 3 | 7 | 27.1 | 18.7 | 54 | 9.7 | 20.9 | 0 | 21.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-15 | 22 | 275 | 29.1 | 18.3 | 53 | 9.1 | 21.6 | 0.2 | 21.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-16 | 33 | 325 | 28.6 | 19.3 | 55 | 9.2 | 24.5 | 0.3 | 21.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-17 | 149 | 1,732 | 28 | 19.5 | 52 | 10 | 21.6 | 0 | 22 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-18 | 19 | 459 | 30.1 | 16.7 | 43 | 9.2 | 22 | 0 | 21.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-19 | 13 | 159 | 31 | 17.1 | 38 | 7.6 | 28.1 | 0 | 25.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-20 | 23 | 172 | 28.2 | 16.2 | 47 | 7.3 | 23.8 | 0 | 24.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-21 | 13 | 86 | 28.9 | 17.1 | 46 | 7.4 | 19.8 | 0 | 23.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-22 | 35 | 278 | 29.4 | 17.9 | 46 | 10.2 | 21.6 | 0 | 23.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-23 | 21 | 231 | 28.7 | 18.3 | 46 | 9 | 26.3 | 0 | 24.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-24 | 4 | 16 | 30.7 | 17.5 | 40 | 7.7 | 18.7 | 0 | 22.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-25 | 2 | 3 | 31 | 18.5 | 39 | 7.5 | 24.5 | 0 | 24.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-26 | 1 | 0 | 32.5 | 16.6 | 32 | 8.2 | 23 | 0 | 26.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-27 | 10 | 64 | 31.2 | 17.1 | 37 | 7.8 | 16.9 | 0 | 28.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-28 | 22 | 332 | 30.4 | 18.1 | 44 | 7.8 | 21.6 | 0 | 29 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-29 | 4 | 28 | 28.8 | 19.1 | 58 | 6.5 | 23 | 0.2 | 22 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-08-30 | 2 | 3 | 28.9 | 20.2 | 56 | 10.3 | 23 | 0.2 | 20.5 | moderado | 1 |
| 2024-08-31 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 19 | 54 | 8.8 | 27 | 4.1 | 20.6 | moderado | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 10,006ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 31days
- 31 Jul 2024 – 30 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 31 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 519
- in a single hotspot: 111 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 172MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
31 Jul30 Aug
30 Aug 2024
How it evolved, day by day
31 Jul
7 Aug
17 Aug
28 Aug
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
32°high
28km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 31 Aug.
This area had burned before
45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,112 ha in 2016, 1,146 ha in 2017, 21 ha in 2018, 680 ha in 2019, 2,171 ha in 2020, 1,011 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,461 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Kasongo-Lunda where it started10,065 ha reached on 31 Jul0.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 25 % of the area in Democratic Republic of the Congo
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Jul | 29.6 °C | 46 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 1 Aug | 27.8 °C | 52 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 2 Aug | 29.4 °C | 51 % | 25 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Aug | 30.3 °C | 41 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 4 Aug | 28.2 °C | 49 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Aug | 27.5 °C | 53 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Aug | 28.7 °C | 49 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Aug | 28.5 °C | 50 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Aug | 30.4 °C | 42 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 9 Aug | 30.5 °C | 43 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Aug | 29.6 °C | 49 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 11 Aug | 28.5 °C | 47 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 12 Aug | 27.6 °C | 53 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 13 Aug | 28.3 °C | 52 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 Aug | 27.1 °C | 54 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 15 Aug | 29.1 °C | 53 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 16 Aug | 28.6 °C | 55 % | 24 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 17 Aug | 28.0 °C | 52 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Aug | 30.1 °C | 43 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 19 Aug | 31.0 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Aug | 28.2 °C | 47 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Aug | 28.9 °C | 46 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 22 Aug | 29.4 °C | 46 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Aug | 28.7 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 24 Aug | 30.7 °C | 40 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Aug | 31.0 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Aug | 32.5 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 27 Aug | 31.2 °C | 37 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Aug | 30.4 °C | 44 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Aug | 28.8 °C | 58 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Aug | 28.9 °C | 56 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 54 % | 27 km/h | 4.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 21.7, a minimum humidity of 46% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 12.
FWI at the start
21.7
Minimum humidity
46 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Kasongo-Lunda fire, 31 July 2024
10,006 ha
31 days
FWI 21.7
Min. humidity 46 %
Kasongo-Lunda fire, August 2019
14,415 ha
32 days
FWI 26.8
Min. humidity 44 %
31 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 4 Sept.
Massango fire, August 2023
5,800 ha
16 days
FWI 25.2
Min. humidity 43 %
165 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Kasongo-Lunda fire, August 2020
5,498 ha
20 days
FWI 26.4
Min. humidity 42 %
44 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.1 mm on 26 Aug.
Massango fire, August 2023
6,217 ha
19 days
FWI 26.0
Min. humidity 41 %
182 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 16 Sept.
Buengas fire, August 2016
20,800 ha
13 days
FWI 20.4
Min. humidity 37 %
173 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.1 mm on 29 Aug.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 12. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
4.1 mmfirst rain
31 Augthe day after it ended
28km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 30 Aug, and on 31 Aug 4.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 24 Jul 2024
After · 6 Sept 2024
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 17 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 167 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 97: 6.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak167 µg/m³
Days over the guideline24 days
PM10238 µg/m³
Optical depth2.29
WHO 15
3 Aug8 Aug13 Aug18 Aug23 Aug
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
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 · 519Every 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
- 49,200 haKasongo-Lunda1 August 2026 · 27 days · 19 km away
- 43,605 haKasongo-Lunda4 August 2024 · 31 days · 26 km away
- 18,234 haKasongo-Lunda8 August 2026 · 27 days · 27 km away
- 22,145 haKasongo-Lunda7 August 2026 · 21 days · 30 km away
- 18,588 haKasongo-Lunda5 August 2020 · 15 days · 30 km away
- 33,892 haKasongo-Lunda4 August 2025 · 30 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kasongo-Lunda fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 July 2024 to 30 August 2024 (31 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 August 2024 to 23 August 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,006 hectares (100.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kasongo-Lunda (10,065 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class 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
History of this page · 6 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 23 August 2024 → 30 August 2024.
- Start date: 5 August 2024 → 31 July 2024.
- Last day with fire: 30 August 2024 → 23 August 2024.
- Start date: 31 July 2024 → 5 August 2024.
- Last day with fire: 23 August 2024 → 30 August 2024.
- Start date: 5 August 2024 → 31 July 2024.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 August 2024 to 23 August 2024. 519 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.