Lodja fire, 1 June 2022 Lodja, Katako-Kombe
The fire started on 1 June 2022 in Lodja, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,821 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 48th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 5 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2022, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 14,821ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 1 Jun 2022 – 16 Jun 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 1 Jun
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 794
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 11.1GW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 20 Jun.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,397 ha in 2016, 11,381 ha in 2017, 11,615 ha in 2018, 10,084 ha in 2019, 14,511 ha in 2020, 10,397 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,764 ha that had burned before.
- 7,829 ha Lodja fire, May 2018 23,308 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,574 ha Lodja fire, June 2021 9,491 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,137 ha Katako-Kombe fire, May 2017 9,736 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,561 ha Lodja fire, June 2020 42,241 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,445 ha Lodja fire, June 2016 7,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,176 ha Katako-Kombe fire, May 2016 7,007 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 95 ha Katako-Kombe fire, June 2019 7,996 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lodja where it started8,175 ha0.6 %
-
6,746 ha0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jun | 31.3 °C | 46 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 9 |
| 2 Jun | 32.2 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 3 Jun | 31.0 °C | 40 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 4 Jun | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 5 Jun | 32.8 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 6 Jun | 32.4 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 7 Jun | 32.5 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Jun | 32.1 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 9 Jun | 32.3 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Jun | 31.2 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Jun | 33.0 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 12 Jun | 33.2 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Jun | 32.2 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Jun | 32.6 °C | 35 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 15 Jun | 32.4 °C | 44 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 21 |
| 16 Jun | 34.2 °C | 38 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 17 Jun after | 33.9 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Jun after | 28.1 °C | 56 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 Jun after | 30.4 °C | 46 % | 22 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 20 Jun after | 28.4 °C | 55 % | 22 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 7 |
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 · 0Every 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 1 June 2022 and 16 June 2022: 16 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 14,821 hectares (148.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lodja (8,175 ha, 0.6 %); Katako-Kombe (6,746 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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.