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Lubudi fire, July 2016 Kambove, Lubudi

Out · last detection 4 Aug 2016, 23:42 UTC

The fire started on 30 July 2016 in Lubudi, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,599 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 70th largest in Lualaba since 2016 (of 91 with a page). Number 116 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area
5,599ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
30 Jul 2016 – 4 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
30 Jul
2016
Heat detections
190
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul4 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

30311234

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
41km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Kambove
    3,776 ha reached on 30 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Lubudi where it started
    1,849 ha reached on 24 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)
30 Jul 27.8 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Jul 27.2 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Aug 27.9 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Aug 28.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Aug 28.0 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Aug 27.0 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Aug after 25.8 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Aug after 24.9 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Aug after 25.3 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Aug after 26.4 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug after 27.2 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Aug after 27.1 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Aug after 26.3 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug after 27.6 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Aug after 28.0 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Aug after 29.2 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2016
After · 11 Aug 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 · 190Every 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 Lubudi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 July 2016 and 4 August 2016: 6 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 5,599 hectares (56.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kambove (3,776 ha, 0.2 %); Lubudi (1,849 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.