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CG · Republic of the Congo · –

Kimongo fire, June 2019 Kimongo

Out · last detection 27 Jun 2019, 12:19 UTC

The fire started on 19 June 2019 in Kimongo, Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,003 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 20th largest in Niari since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 59 in Republic of the Congo in 2019, of 59.

Burnt area
1,003ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
19 Jun 2019 – 27 Jun 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Jun
2019
Heat detections
28
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
105MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jun27 Jun
27 Jun 2019

How it evolved, day by day

19 Jun 2019 · 12 MW · 1 21 Jun 2019 · 4 MW · 1 24 Jun 2019 · 348 MW · 20 27 Jun 2019 · 54 MW · 6
19 Jun 21 Jun 24 Jun 27 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

32°high
29km/h · peak gust
53%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.6% of the area of London (10 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Kimongo where it started
    1,010 ha reached on 19 Jun
    0.5 %

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
19 Jun 31.8 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
20 Jun 27.8 °C 58 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
21 Jun 28.0 °C 60 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
22 Jun 28.9 °C 55 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Jun 27.8 °C 56 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
24 Jun 29.3 °C 54 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
25 Jun 27.7 °C 60 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
26 Jun 27.0 °C 56 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
27 Jun 28.0 °C 53 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
28 Jun after 28.2 °C 54 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
29 Jun after 27.1 °C 63 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
30 Jun after 28.2 °C 57 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
1 Jul after 27.5 °C 56 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
2 Jul after 26.5 °C 60 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
3 Jul after 27.4 °C 67 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
4 Jul after 27.2 °C 59 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
5 Jul after 25.9 °C 66 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
6 Jul after 28.6 °C 55 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
7 Jul after 26.5 °C 65 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 12.5, a minimum humidity of 53% and 23 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 12.5
Minimum humidity 53 %
Days without rain 23
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Kimongo fire, September 2021
1,180 ha 6 days FWI 15.2 Min. humidity 54 % 16 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.0 mm on 11 Sept.

What happened to them

5 days
median duration
1,201 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 30 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,003 ha against a median of 1,201 ha) and lasted 9 days, against 5 days.

In 17 of 30, 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 1.4 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
29km/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: 13 of 30, with a median of 1.4 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jun 2019
After · 4 Jul 2019

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 · 28Every 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 Republic of the Congo

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kimongo fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 June 2019 to 27 June 2019 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 June 2019 to 27 June 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,003 hectares (10.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kimongo (1,010 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 53 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 13, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Republic of the Congo (geoBoundaries ADM2). 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: 30. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 1,201 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 17 of 30, 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 1.4 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.
  1. Start date: 24 June 2019 → 19 June 2019.

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.

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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 24 June 2019 to 27 June 2019. 28 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 (Map Library 2007, nombres de Wikidata) (Public Domain). 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.