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Kongolo fire, June 2019 Kongolo, Kabalo

Out · last detection 22 Jun 2019, 23:15 UTC

The fire started on 17 June 2019 in Kongolo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,046 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 41th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 20 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2019, of 115.

Burnt area
10,046ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Jun 2019 – 21 Jun 2019
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
17 Jun
2019
Heat detections
322
in a single hotspot: 340 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
9.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jun 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jun21 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
38km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,630 ha in 2016, 3,604 ha in 2017, 7,461 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,900 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kongolo where it started
    6,013 ha reached on 17 Jun
    0.5 %
  2. Kabalo
    4,100 ha reached on 17 Jun
    0.3 %

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)
17 Jun 34.3 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Jun 34.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jun 34.5 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Jun 35.2 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jun 34.6 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jun after 33.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jun after 33.4 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jun after 34.5 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Jun after 34.3 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Jun after 33.9 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jun after 35.0 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Jun after 34.1 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jun after 34.8 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jun after 35.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Jul after 36.0 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Jul after 34.3 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Jul after 35.4 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Jul after 35.4 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jul after 34.7 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Jul after 34.8 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Jul after 33.7 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Jul after 35.1 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jun 2019
After · 28 Jun 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 · 322Every 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 17 June 2019 and 21 June 2019: 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 10,046 hectares (100.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kongolo (6,013 ha, 0.5 %); Kabalo (4,100 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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

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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.