Lodja fire, July 2019 Lodja
The fire started on 13 July 2019 in Lodja, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,614 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 84th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 29 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2019, of 115.
- Burnt area
- 8,614ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 13 Jul 2019 – 26 Jul 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 13 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 333
- in a single hotspot: 56 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.9GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 2 Aug.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,548 ha in 2016, 14 ha in 2017, 4,828 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,094 ha that had burned before.
- 4,828 ha Lodja fire, July 2018 27,599 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,945 ha Lodja fire, June 2016 30,512 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 26 ha Lodja fire, July 2016 9,585 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lodja where it started8,676 ha reached on 13 Jul0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul | 30.6 °C | 50 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 14 Jul | 33.1 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 21 |
| 15 Jul | 31.3 °C | 51 % | 21 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Jul | 30.7 °C | 49 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 17 Jul | 32.6 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Jul | 33.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Jul | 33.0 °C | 28 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Jul | 30.3 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Jul | 29.6 °C | 58 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 22 Jul | 30.8 °C | 43 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 23 Jul | 32.4 °C | 41 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 24 Jul | 30.3 °C | 45 % | 19 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Jul | 32.5 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 26 Jul | 33.8 °C | 27 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Jul after | 32.3 °C | 30 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Jul after | 30.8 °C | 38 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Jul after | 33.1 °C | 30 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Jul after | 31.8 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 31 Jul after | 31.3 °C | 50 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Aug after | 31.5 °C | 49 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 3.9 mm | Low 8 |
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 · 333Every 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 13 July 2019 and 26 July 2019: 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 8,614 hectares (86.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lodja (8,676 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.