Kole fire, August 2026 Kole
The fire started on 7 August 2026 in Kole, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,228 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 55th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 134 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2026, of 523.
- Burnt area
- 12,228ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 7 Aug 2026 – 20 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 7 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 247
- in a single hotspot: 41 MW
- Danger at start
- 5
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,937 ha in 2016, 1,699 ha in 2017, 9,381 ha in 2018, 8,130 ha in 2019, 9,837 ha in 2020, 7,863 ha in 2021, 4,286 ha in 2022, 4,319 ha in 2023, 4,836 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,319 ha that had burned before.
- 9,837 ha Kole fire, July 2020 32,588 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,381 ha Kole fire, July 2018 24,520 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,828 ha Kole fire, July 2021 13,421 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,470 ha Kole fire, June 2016 10,266 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 398 ha Kole fire, July 2016 8,097 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kole where it started12,318 ha reached on 7 Aug0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Aug | 30.7 °C | 51 % | 24 km/h | 6.6 mm | Very low 5 |
| 8 Aug | 32.7 °C | 44 % | 21 km/h | 1.4 mm | Low 9 |
| 9 Aug | 34.2 °C | 39 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 10 Aug | 34.6 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 11 Aug | 28.4 °C | 64 % | 24 km/h | 6.6 mm | Very low 2 |
| 12 Aug | 33.3 °C | 42 % | 20 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 13 Aug | 33.4 °C | 41 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 14 Aug | 33.7 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 15 Aug | 35.0 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Aug | 34.0 °C | 33 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Aug | 33.4 °C | 34 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Aug | 32.8 °C | 37 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Aug | 35.5 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Aug | 33.5 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Aug after | 34.0 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Aug after | 35.3 °C | 32 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 23 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 39 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Aug after | 34.3 °C | 34 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Aug after | 35.6 °C | 33 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 50 % | 28 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 27 Aug after | 36.8 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 28 Aug after | 35.1 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Aug after | 30.6 °C | 53 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Aug after | 34.6 °C | 38 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Sept after | 36.3 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Sept after | 35.4 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Sept after | 34.8 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Sept after | 34.0 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 36 % | 21 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 32 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 14 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 323 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 155: 10 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 247Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kole fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 August 2026 and 20 August 2026: 14 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 12,228 hectares (122.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kole (12,318 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class 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
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
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.