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Lubudi fire, August 2022 Lubudi, Kambove

Out · last measured on 6 Aug 2022

The fire started on 2 August 2022 in Lubudi, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,990 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 56th largest in Lualaba since 2016 (of 91 with a page). Number 63 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2022, of 106.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
5,990ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
2 Aug 2022 – 6 Aug 2022
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
2 Aug
2022
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

29°high
38km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,036 ha in 2016, 3,528 ha in 2017, 3,080 ha in 2018, 3,244 ha in 2019, 1,823 ha in 2020, 2,372 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,595 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lubudi where it started
    5,979 ha
    0.3 %
  2. Kambove
    50 ha
    0.0 %

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)
2 Aug 28.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Aug 28.0 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Aug 28.4 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Aug 28.6 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Aug 28.8 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Aug after 28.8 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Aug after 28.4 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug after 29.5 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Aug after 29.9 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Aug after 28.7 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Aug after 29.2 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Aug after 30.1 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Aug after 32.1 °C 17 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Aug after 31.7 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Aug after 31.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jul 2022
After · 13 Aug 2022

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lubudi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 August 2022 and 6 August 2022: 5 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 5,990 hectares (59.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lubudi (5,979 ha, 0.3 %); Kambove (50 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.