Kongolo fire, 18 June 2026 Kongolo
The fire started on 18 June 2026 in Kongolo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,348 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 20th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 132 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2026, of 523.
- Burnt area
- 12,348ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 18 Jun 2026 – 27 Jun 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 18 Jun
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 258
- in a single hotspot: 315 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.8GW
- 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 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,333 ha in 2016, 6,679 ha in 2017, 7,270 ha in 2018, 1,753 ha in 2019, 6,107 ha in 2020, 2,422 ha in 2021, 1,039 ha in 2022, 5,021 ha in 2023, 3,956 ha in 2024, 3,828 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,688 ha that had burned before.
- 4,904 ha Kongolo fire, July 2020 8,213 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,707 ha Kongolo fire, May 2017 5,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 232 ha Kongolo fire, July 2025 10,192 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 114 ha Kongolo fire, July 2019 5,930 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 95 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 started12,434 ha reached on 15 Jun1.0 %
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 Jun | 34.0 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Jun | 33.0 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Jun | 34.4 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Jun | 34.6 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Jun | 34.0 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Jun | 34.7 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Jun | 33.8 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Jun | 33.6 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 23 Jun | 33.7 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 24 Jun | 33.6 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Jun | 33.9 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Jun | 34.6 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jun | 33.8 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Jun after | 33.6 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 29 Jun after | 33.6 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Jun after | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 Jul after | 34.6 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Jul after | 34.3 °C | 25 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Jul after | 35.2 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Jul after | 35.0 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Jul after | 34.5 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Jul after | 33.9 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Jul after | 33.7 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 24 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 94 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 61: 4.1 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 · 258Every 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 18 June 2026 and 27 June 2026: 10 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 12,348 hectares (123.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kongolo (12,434 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.