Kongolo fire, 15 July 2020 Kongolo
The fire started on 15 July 2020 in Kongolo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,213 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 64th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 59 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2020, of 165.
- Burnt area
- 8,213ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 15 Jul 2020 – 22 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 15 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 237
- in a single hotspot: 110 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,707 ha in 2016, 4,661 ha in 2017, 5,638 ha in 2018, 3,336 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,402 ha that had burned before.
- 3,827 ha Kongolo fire, May 2017 5,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 626 ha Kongolo fire, July 2019 5,930 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 623 ha Kongolo fire, July 2016 7,219 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 536 ha Kongolo fire, June 2017 10,707 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kongolo where it started8,270 ha reached on 15 Jul0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jul | 34.3 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Jul | 34.6 °C | 19 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Jul | 31.1 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 18 Jul | 30.8 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Jul | 31.8 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 20 Jul | 33.0 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Jul | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Jul | 34.0 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Jul after | 33.7 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Jul after | 32.8 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Jul after | 32.9 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Jul after | 33.0 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 27 Jul after | 33.1 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Jul after | 32.1 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Jul after | 33.5 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Jul after | 34.3 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 31 Jul after | 34.7 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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.
Detections table · 237Every 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 Kongolo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 July 2020 and 22 July 2020: 8 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 8,213 hectares (82.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kongolo (8,270 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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
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.