Burned area
satellite only10,335ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 16 Jun 2020 – 27 Jun 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CD · Democratic Republic of the Congo · –
Katako-Kombe fire, 16 June 2020 Katako-Kombe
Out · last detection 27 Jun 2020, 11:15 UTC
The fire started on 16 June 2020 in Katako-Kombe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,335 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 47th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 156 with a page). Number 40 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2020, of 165.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches 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 only12days
16 Jun 2020 to 27 Jun 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 27 Jun 2020, 11:15 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 only16 Jun 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 16 Jun 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only377
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 279 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 16 Jun 2020 – 27 Jun 2020
+− 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 only3,278MW
Total radiative power on 20 June 2020; hotspots that day: 170.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 20 Jun 2020
+− 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
model28.2FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 2.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 16 Jun 2020, 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
model33.6°C · 31% RH
High of 33.6 °C and minimum humidity of 31% on 24 June 2020; gusts of 35 km/h on 17 June 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 16 Jun 2020 – 27 Jun 2020
- 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.
Living inside
model≈ 200people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 7.4 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
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
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logStart date: 18 June 2020 → 16 June 2020.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 10,335 ha
- Dates
- 16 Jun 2020 – 27 Jun 2020
- Name
- Katako-Kombe
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/katako-kombe-2020-06-3?v=2026-10-26A 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 katako-kombe-2020-06-3.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-06-16 | 3 | 34 | 32 | 19.4 | 31 | 12 | 33.5 | 0 | 28.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-06-17 | 4 | 25 | 32.8 | 19.4 | 22 | 13.3 | 34.9 | 0 | 32.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-06-18 | 19 | 154 | 32.1 | 18.6 | 25 | 12 | 32 | 0 | 31.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-06-19 | 14 | 317 | 32.4 | 19 | 31 | 9.2 | 27.4 | 0 | 29.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-06-20 | 170 | 3,278 | 31.9 | 21.6 | 36 | 10 | 19.1 | 0 | 21 | moderado | 1 |
| 2020-06-21 | 65 | 823 | 31.8 | 22.3 | 42 | 9 | 25.6 | 0 | 23.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-06-22 | 38 | 319 | 30.6 | 22.5 | 48 | 8.7 | 20.2 | 0.1 | 21.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-06-23 | 7 | 43 | 30.8 | 22.8 | 45 | 8.7 | 22.7 | 0.1 | 16.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2020-06-24 | 16 | 153 | 33.6 | 20.8 | 31 | 7.6 | 27.4 | 0 | 25.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-06-25 | 19 | 197 | 31.7 | 21.3 | 41 | 10.8 | 21.2 | 0 | 21.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-06-26 | 0 | 0 | 31.1 | 22 | 47 | 11.9 | 22.7 | 0 | 21.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2020-06-27 | 22 | 124 | 31.5 | 22.3 | 50 | 8.7 | 22.3 | 1.1 | 17.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2020-06-28 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 22.3 | 44 | 8 | 30.2 | 0.4 | 12.5 | moderado | 0 |
| 2020-06-29 | 0 | 0 | 33.1 | 22.3 | 39 | 10 | 28.4 | 0 | 24 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-06-30 | 0 | 0 | 32.2 | 23 | 37 | 13.2 | 29.9 | 0 | 20.6 | moderado | 0 |
| 2020-07-01 | 0 | 0 | 28.9 | 22.1 | 63 | 10.3 | 24.5 | 0.3 | 13.9 | moderado | 0 |
| 2020-07-02 | 0 | 0 | 31.1 | 21.5 | 49 | 7.2 | 28.8 | 0 | 16.3 | moderado | 0 |
| 2020-07-03 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 21.9 | 26 | 13.6 | 34.6 | 0 | 35.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-07-04 | 0 | 0 | 34.5 | 20.4 | 23 | 11 | 30.2 | 0 | 39.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2020-07-05 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 21 | 26 | 10.6 | 27.4 | 0 | 36.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-07-06 | 0 | 0 | 29.1 | 21.7 | 52 | 11.6 | 28.4 | 0.1 | 20.9 | moderado | 0 |
| 2020-07-07 | 0 | 0 | 31.5 | 21.8 | 45 | 8.6 | 24.8 | 0 | 18.7 | 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), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 10,335ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 16 Jun 2020 – 27 Jun 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 16 Jun
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 377
- in a single hotspot: 279 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 497MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
16 Jun27 Jun
27 Jun 2020
How it evolved, day by day
16 Jun
20 Jun
25 Jun
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
35km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,842 ha in 2016, 2,238 ha in 2017, 4,545 ha in 2018, 3,369 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,117 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
-
Katako-Kombe where it started10,403 ha reached on 16 Jun0.4 %
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area7.4 ha
Residents≈ 200
Inside the perimeter there were about 7.4 hectares of built-up land and about 200 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jun | 32.0 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Jun | 32.8 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 18 Jun | 32.1 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Jun | 32.4 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Jun | 31.9 °C | 36 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Jun | 31.8 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Jun | 30.6 °C | 48 % | 20 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 21 |
| 23 Jun | 30.8 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Jun | 33.6 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Jun | 31.7 °C | 41 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 26 Jun | 31.1 °C | 47 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Jun | 31.5 °C | 50 % | 22 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 28 Jun after | 33.0 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 29 Jun after | 33.1 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Jun after | 32.2 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Jul after | 28.9 °C | 63 % | 24 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 2 Jul after | 31.1 °C | 49 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 3 Jul after | 34.0 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Jul after | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Jul after | 33.0 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Jul after | 29.1 °C | 52 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 7 Jul after | 31.5 °C | 45 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 28.2, a minimum humidity of 31% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 22.
FWI at the start
28.2
Minimum humidity
31 %
Days without rain
2
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Katako-Kombe fire, 16 June 2020
10,335 ha
12 days
FWI 28.2
Min. humidity 31 %
Lodja fire, July 2023
8,411 ha
9 days
FWI 27.6
Min. humidity 31 %
61 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Lodja fire, July 2025
9,400 ha
11 days
FWI 26.7
Min. humidity 28 %
70 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 9 Aug.
Katako-Kombe fire, July 2023
9,986 ha
25 days
FWI 27.8
Min. humidity 26 %
84 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Katako-Kombe fire, June 2022
5,945 ha
28 days
FWI 28.4
Min. humidity 33 %
87 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Lodja fire, June 2024
8,731 ha
20 days
FWI 27.7
Min. humidity 34 %
98 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 25 days
- median duration
- 9,066 ha
- median area
- 41 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 1.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 2 of 22 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (10,335 ha against a median of 9,066 ha) and lasted 12 days, against 25 days.
In 20 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.
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
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
35km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 27 Jun, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 2 of 22, with a median of 1.8 mm.
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 · 9 Jun 2020
After · 4 Jul 2020
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.
Detections table · 377Every 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
- 97,490 haKatako-Kombe22 May 2026 · 60 days · 19 km away
- 66,023 haKatako-Kombe9 June 2024 · 30 days · 32 km away
- 42,241 haLodja16 June 2020 · 19 days · 33 km away
- 108,157 haKatako-Kombe29 May 2026 · 47 days · 35 km away
- 113,285 haLodja20 June 2022 · 36 days · 38 km away
- 42,778 haLodja7 June 2020 · 21 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Katako-Kombe fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 June 2020 to 27 June 2020 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 June 2020 to 27 June 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,335 hectares (103.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Katako-Kombe (10,403 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 22. Their median duration was 25 days and their median area 9,066 ha; 41 % went past 10,000 ha. In 20 of 22, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.8 mm.
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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 18 June 2020 → 16 June 2020.
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 18 June 2020 to 27 June 2020. 377 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.