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CD · Congo - Kinshasa · →

Luilu fire, August 2023 Luilu

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2023, 23:11 UTC

The fire started on 3 August 2023 in Luilu, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,771 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Lomami since 2016 (of 66 with a page). Number 17 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2023, of 76.

Burnt area
9,771ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
3 Aug 2023 – 14 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
3 Aug
2023
Heat detections
542
in a single hotspot: 147 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

3456789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
44km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,366 ha in 2016, 7,869 ha in 2017, 11,177 ha in 2018, 8,187 ha in 2019, 7,621 ha in 2020, 5,642 ha in 2021, 6,943 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,787 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Luilu where it started
    9,842 ha reached on 28 Jul
    0.9 %

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)
28 Jul 33.9 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Jul 34.7 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Jul 35.8 °C 15 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Jul 34.9 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Aug 34.5 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Aug 34.3 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Aug 33.8 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Aug 32.7 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Aug 32.6 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Aug 34.1 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Aug 34.4 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Aug 32.9 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Aug 34.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Aug 34.4 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
11 Aug 33.7 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Aug 34.8 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Aug 34.7 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Aug 35.4 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Aug after 32.3 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Aug after 32.3 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Aug after 33.8 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug after 34.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug after 32.9 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug after 35.3 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Aug after 34.3 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Aug after 33.6 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug after 35.5 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Aug after 35.0 °C 21 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Aug after 33.8 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Aug after 33.4 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Aug after 34.5 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug after 35.2 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug after 33.5 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Aug after 33.4 °C 21 % 35 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 · 27 Jul 2023
After · 21 Aug 2023

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 · 542Every 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 Luilu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 August 2023 and 14 August 2023: 12 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 9,771 hectares (97.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luilu (9,842 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
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.