Burned area
satellite only1,654ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 18 Aug 2022 – 20 Aug 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CG · Republic of the Congo · –
Kindamba fire, August 2022 Kindamba, Mayama
Out · last detection 20 Aug 2022, 12:57 UTC
The fire started on 18 August 2022 in Kindamba, Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,654 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 48th largest in Pool since 2016 (of 202 with a page). Number 25 in Republic of the Congo in 2022, of 69.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches 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 only3days
18 Aug 2022 to 20 Aug 2022: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 20 Aug 2022, 12:57 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 only18 Aug 2022
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 18 Aug 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only19
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 62 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 18 Aug 2022 – 20 Aug 2022
+− 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 only338MW
Total radiative power on 19 August 2022; hotspots that day: 10.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 19 Aug 2022
+− 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
model21.8FWI · 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
- 18 Aug 2022, 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
model29.3°C · 52% RH
High of 29.3 °C and minimum humidity of 52% on 18 August 2022; gusts of 35 km/h on 18 August 2022.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 18 Aug 2022 – 20 Aug 2022
- 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
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
What was saved on 24 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
- 1,654 ha
- Dates
- 18 Aug 2022 – 20 Aug 2022
- Name
- Bambama
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/kindamba-2022-08?v=2026-10-24A 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 kindamba-2022-08.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-08-18 | 0 | 0 | 29.3 | 20.9 | 52 | 15.7 | 34.9 | 0.1 | 21.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-08-19 | 10 | 338 | 28.6 | 19.8 | 54 | 13.6 | 31.7 | 0 | 20.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-08-20 | 9 | 71 | 29 | 18.2 | 52 | 11.5 | 26.6 | 0 | 20 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-08-21 | 0 | 0 | 29.4 | 19.7 | 56 | 8.8 | 22.7 | 0.4 | 18.3 | moderado | 0 |
| 2022-08-22 | 0 | 0 | 26.5 | 21.2 | 61 | 13.5 | 31 | 1 | 11.8 | 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
- 1,654ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 18 Aug 2022 – 20 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 19
- in a single hotspot: 62 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 204MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
18 Aug20 Aug
20 Aug 2022
How it evolved, day by day
19 Aug
20 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
29°high
35km/h · peak gust
52%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 22 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
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
-
Kindamba where it started1,614 ha reached on 19 Aug0.2 %
-
50 ha reached on 20 Aug0.0 %
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: 12 % of the area in Republic of the Congo
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Aug | 29.3 °C | 52 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 19 Aug | 28.6 °C | 54 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Aug | 29.0 °C | 52 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 21 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 56 % | 23 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 22 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 61 % | 31 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 21.8, a minimum humidity of 52% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 16.
FWI at the start
21.8
Minimum humidity
52 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Kindamba fire, August 2022
1,654 ha
3 days
FWI 21.8
Min. humidity 52 %
Mayama fire, July 2024
1,583 ha
8 days
FWI 18.6
Min. humidity 52 %
11 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mayama fire, July 2024
1,636 ha
7 days
FWI 19.5
Min. humidity 54 %
49 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mayama fire, August 2016
1,203 ha
6 days
FWI 17.2
Min. humidity 53 %
42 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.0 mm on 15 Aug.
Ngabé fire, August 2024
2,934 ha
20 days
FWI 23.2
Min. humidity 50 %
143 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 40.9 mm on 2 Sept.
Kwamouth fire, August 2020
6,285 ha
18 days
FWI 21.8
Min. humidity 54 %
184 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.3 mm on 22 Aug.
What happened to them
- 6 days
- median duration
- 1,610 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.9 mm
- rain at the end (median; 8 of 16 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (1,654 ha against a median of 1,610 ha) and lasted 3 days, against 6 days.
In 8 of 16, 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 2.9 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
1.0 mmfirst rain
22 Aug2 days after it ended
35km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 20 Aug, and on 22 Aug 1.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 8 of 16, with a median of 2.9 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 · 11 Aug 2022
After · 27 Aug 2022
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 16 August 2022 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak81 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10117 µg/m³
Optical depth2.41
WHO 15
16 Aug18 Aug20 Aug22 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 · 19Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kindamba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2022 and 20 August 2022: 3 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 1,654 hectares (16.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kindamba (1,614 ha, 0.2 %); Mayama (50 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 52 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.
- 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: 16. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 1,610 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 8 of 16, 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 2.9 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 19 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 (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.