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Lodja fire, 11 June 2016 Lodja

Out · last detection 3 Jul 2016, 12:38 UTC

The fire started on 11 June 2016 in Lodja, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 43,985 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). The largest in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area
43,985ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
11 Jun 2016 – 2 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
11 Jun
2016
Heat detections
2,756
in a single hotspot: 252 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
33.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jun2 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516171819202122232425262728293023

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
40km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 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

  1. Lodja where it started
    44,295 ha reached on 8 Jun
    3.5 %

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)
8 Jun 34.1 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Jun 34.0 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Jun 33.5 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Jun 33.8 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Jun 33.9 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Jun 33.7 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Jun 31.4 °C 39 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Jun 31.1 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Jun 29.7 °C 59 % 20 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
17 Jun 30.5 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 20
18 Jun 30.7 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 19
19 Jun 31.6 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Jun 31.9 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Jun 28.9 °C 60 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Jun 32.2 °C 43 % 22 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 14
23 Jun 32.6 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Jun 32.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jun 32.8 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jun 29.5 °C 39 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Jun 33.2 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Jun 32.1 °C 45 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
29 Jun 32.5 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
30 Jun 32.3 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Jul 32.5 °C 37 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Jul 33.7 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Jul after 34.1 °C 26 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Jul after 33.8 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Jul after 33.5 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Jul after 33.4 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Jul after 32.5 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Jul after 33.3 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Jul after 34.0 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Jul after 33.9 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jul after 32.7 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Jul after 31.7 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Jul after 33.0 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Jul after 32.2 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jul after 31.6 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Jul after 33.4 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Jul after 33.2 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jul after 33.7 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jul after 32.1 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jun 2016
After · 9 Jul 2016

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 · 2,756Every 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 Lodja fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 June 2016 and 2 July 2016: 22 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 43,985 hectares (439.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lodja (44,295 ha, 3.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.

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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.