Skip to content
worldfires
CD · Congo - Kinshasa · →

Kongolo fire, 23 May 2017 Kongolo, Nyunzu

Out · last detection 27 May 2017, 11:46 UTC

The fire started on 23 May 2017 in Kongolo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,177 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 205th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 121 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area
5,177ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
23 May 2017 – 27 May 2017
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
23 May
2017
Heat detections
141
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
824MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 May 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 May27 May

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 840 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kongolo where it started
    3,350 ha reached on 20 May
    0.2 %
  2. Nyunzu
    1,862 ha reached on 25 May
    0.1 %

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)
23 May 35.1 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 May 34.9 °C 34 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 May 35.4 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 May 36.0 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 May 34.1 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 May after 33.7 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 May after 34.6 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 May after 34.2 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 May after 33.8 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Jun after 34.1 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jun after 35.5 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Jun after 36.2 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Jun after 34.3 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Jun after 35.8 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jun after 35.5 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 May 2017
After · 3 Jun 2017

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 · 141Every 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 Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kongolo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 May 2017 and 27 May 2017: 5 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 5,177 hectares (51.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kongolo (3,350 ha, 0.2 %); Nyunzu (1,862 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.