Skip to content
worldfires
CD · Congo - Kinshasa · →

Lubao fire, July 2017 Lubao, Kabalo

Out · last detection 3 Jul 2017, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 1 July 2017 in Lubao, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,513 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 51th largest in Lomami since 2016 (of 66 with a page). Number 99 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area
5,513ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
1 Jul 2017 – 3 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
1 Jul
2017
Heat detections
199
in a single hotspot: 125 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jul3 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

123

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
45km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,617 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Lubao where it started
    3,727 ha reached on 1 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Kabalo
    1,825 ha reached on 1 Jul
    0.1 %

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 Jul 33.9 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Jul 33.5 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Jul 33.6 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Jul after 33.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Jul after 32.8 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Jul after 30.9 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Jul after 28.6 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Jul after 33.7 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Jul after 33.5 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jul after 34.2 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Jul after 33.1 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Jul after 32.4 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Jul after 33.2 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jun 2017
After · 10 Jul 2017

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 · 199Every 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 Lubao fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 July 2017 and 3 July 2017: 3 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 5,513 hectares (55.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lubao (3,727 ha, 0.2 %); Kabalo (1,825 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.