Lodja fire, 28 May 2018 Lodja, Katako-Kombe
The fire started on 28 May 2018 in Lodja, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,308 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 31th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 6 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2018, of 128.
- Burnt area
- 23,308ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 28 May 2018 – 19 Jun 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 28 May
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 1,589
- in a single hotspot: 162 MW
- Danger at start
- 2
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 19.9GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.5 mm on 21 Jun.
This area had burned before
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18,867 ha in 2016, 14,376 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,216 ha that had burned before.
- 6,082 ha Lodja fire, June 2016 7,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,262 ha Katako-Kombe fire, May 2017 9,736 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,727 ha Katako-Kombe fire, May 2016 7,007 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lodja where it started12,506 ha reached on 25 May1.0 %
-
10,960 ha reached on 25 May0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 May | 30.1 °C | 61 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 26 May | 29.0 °C | 69 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 27 May | 30.4 °C | 60 % | 33 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very low 3 |
| 28 May | 31.1 °C | 61 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 29 May | 29.2 °C | 60 % | 31 km/h | 2.3 mm | Very low 1 |
| 30 May | 29.7 °C | 57 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 3 |
| 31 May | 29.9 °C | 58 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 5 |
| 1 Jun | 31.1 °C | 48 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 2 Jun | 31.0 °C | 50 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 3 Jun | 31.2 °C | 43 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 4 Jun | 29.4 °C | 53 % | 25 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 10 |
| 5 Jun | 30.8 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 6 Jun | 30.3 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 7 Jun | 30.6 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 8 Jun | 31.3 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 9 Jun | 32.0 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 10 Jun | 32.1 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 11 Jun | 33.3 °C | 30 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 12 Jun | 33.5 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Jun | 33.6 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Jun | 33.2 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Jun | 33.8 °C | 33 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Jun | 33.6 °C | 34 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Jun | 33.9 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 18 Jun | 32.4 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Jun | 29.8 °C | 54 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 20 Jun after | 29.7 °C | 51 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 21 Jun after | 28.0 °C | 63 % | 24 km/h | 5.5 mm | Very low 2 |
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 · 1,589Every 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 Lodja fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 May 2018 and 19 June 2018: 23 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 23,308 hectares (233.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lodja (12,506 ha, 1.0 %); Katako-Kombe (10,960 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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
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.