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Luiza fire, July 2016 Luiza

Out · last detection 11 Jul 2016, 11:47 UTC

The fire started on 2 July 2016 in Luiza, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,639 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 40th largest in Central Kasai since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 51 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area
7,639ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
2 Jul 2016 – 11 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
2 Jul
2016
Heat detections
256
in a single hotspot: 147 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jul11 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

23457891011

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
42km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days 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. Luiza where it started
    7,697 ha reached on 25 Jun
    0.5 %

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 Jul 33.3 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Jul 32.7 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Jul 31.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Jul 32.0 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jul 31.3 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Jul 32.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Jul 31.0 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Jul 31.3 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Jul 31.0 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Jul 30.2 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jul after 30.2 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Jul after 30.9 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Jul after 30.6 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Jul after 31.3 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jul after 31.5 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jul after 32.1 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jul after 32.4 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Jul after 31.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Jul after 31.2 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Jul after 31.2 °C 18 % 36 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 · 25 Jun 2016
After · 18 Jul 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 · 256Every 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 Luiza fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 July 2016 and 11 July 2016: 10 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 7,639 hectares (76.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luiza (7,697 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.