How long did the Lodja fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 June 2016 and 22 June 2016: 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 22,381 hectares (223.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Lodja (22,532 ha, 1.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.

CD · Congo - Kinshasa · 2016-06-09 → 2016-06-22

Lodja fire, 9 June 2016 Lodja

Out · last detection 23 Jun 2016, 12:25 UTC

The fire started on 9 June 2016 in Lodja, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,381 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 33th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 7 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area: 22,381ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 14days; 9 Jun 2016 – 22 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; territories
Started on: 9 Jun; 2016
Heat detections: 1,291; in a single hotspot: 135 MW
Danger at start: 20; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 14.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Jun 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Jun22 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151617181920212223

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

39km/h · peak gust

23%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Lodja where it started

22,532 ha reached on 6 Jun

1.8 %

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)
6 Jun	33.4 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
7 Jun	33.0 °C	39 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
8 Jun	35.2 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
9 Jun	35.2 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
10 Jun	34.5 °C	23 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
11 Jun	34.8 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
12 Jun	35.1 °C	29 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
13 Jun	34.5 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
14 Jun	31.6 °C	41 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
15 Jun	32.2 °C	42 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
16 Jun	30.9 °C	51 %	21 km/h	0.1 mm	High 23
17 Jun	31.3 °C	50 %	26 km/h	0.2 mm	High 24
18 Jun	31.2 °C	49 %	25 km/h	0.3 mm	High 23
19 Jun	32.3 °C	41 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
20 Jun	32.6 °C	34 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
21 Jun	29.7 °C	55 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
22 Jun	33.1 °C	41 %	23 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
23 Jun after	33.6 °C	31 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
24 Jun after	33.5 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
25 Jun after	33.5 °C	28 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
26 Jun after	30.4 °C	39 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
27 Jun after	33.6 °C	31 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
28 Jun after	32.8 °C	44 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
29 Jun after	33.4 °C	39 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
30 Jun after	32.8 °C	37 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
1 Jul after	33.2 °C	36 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
2 Jul after	34.6 °C	29 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
3 Jul after	34.6 °C	26 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
4 Jul after	34.8 °C	21 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
5 Jul after	34.8 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
6 Jul after	34.4 °C	23 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
7 Jul after	33.3 °C	34 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
8 Jul after	34.5 °C	26 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
9 Jul after	35.3 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Jun 2016

After · 29 Jun 2016

Before After

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 · 1,291Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lodja fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 June 2016 and 22 June 2016: 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 22,381 hectares (223.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Lodja (22,532 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned