How long did the Kole fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 June 2016 and 16 July 2016: 19 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 10,266 hectares (102.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Kole (10,342 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Congo - Kinshasa (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

CD · Congo - Kinshasa · 2016-06-28 → 2016-07-16

Kole fire, June 2016 Kole

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2016, 11:54 UTC

The fire started on 28 June 2016 in Kole, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,266 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 66th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 27 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area: 10,266ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 19days; 28 Jun 2016 – 16 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; territories
Started on: 28 Jun; 2016
Heat detections: 731; in a single hotspot: 172 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Energy released: 8.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 16 Jul 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jun16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2930123456789101113141516

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

36km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 25 Jul.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Kole where it started

10,342 ha reached on 22 Jun

0.6 %

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)
22 Jun	32.0 °C	43 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
23 Jun	33.0 °C	30 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
24 Jun	32.6 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
25 Jun	32.9 °C	28 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
26 Jun	32.2 °C	32 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Jun	33.1 °C	30 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Jun	33.2 °C	38 %	24 km/h	0.5 mm	High 31
29 Jun	32.8 °C	39 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
30 Jun	31.9 °C	37 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
1 Jul	32.5 °C	37 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
2 Jul	34.0 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
3 Jul	33.9 °C	27 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
4 Jul	34.0 °C	22 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
5 Jul	33.4 °C	23 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
6 Jul	33.9 °C	23 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
7 Jul	31.8 °C	39 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
8 Jul	33.7 °C	23 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
9 Jul	33.7 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
10 Jul	33.8 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
11 Jul	32.5 °C	23 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
12 Jul	31.9 °C	23 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
13 Jul	33.0 °C	25 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
14 Jul	32.5 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
15 Jul	32.3 °C	32 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
16 Jul	33.4 °C	30 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
17 Jul after	33.5 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
18 Jul after	34.1 °C	25 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
19 Jul after	32.2 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
20 Jul after	32.6 °C	33 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
21 Jul after	32.7 °C	29 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
22 Jul after	32.7 °C	30 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
23 Jul after	32.6 °C	35 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
24 Jul after	32.3 °C	37 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 Jul after	30.9 °C	52 %	30 km/h	3.0 mm	Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Jun 2016

After · 23 Jul 2016

Before After

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 · 731Every 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

All fires in Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kole fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 June 2016 and 16 July 2016: 19 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 10,266 hectares (102.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Kole (10,342 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Congo - Kinshasa (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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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.

Where it burned