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Luiza fire, 21 June 2017 Luiza, Luilu

Out · last detection 30 Jun 2017, 23:53 UTC

The fire started on 21 June 2017 in Luiza, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,282 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 53th largest in Central Kasai since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 78 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area
6,282ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
21 Jun 2017 – 29 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
21 Jun
2017
Heat detections
209
in a single hotspot: 190 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jun29 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

21222324252627282930

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
44km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,261 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Luiza where it started
    6,295 ha reached on 14 Jun
    0.4 %
  2. Luilu
    30 ha reached on 17 Jun
    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)
21 Jun 30.7 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Jun 31.5 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Jun 31.3 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Jun 32.4 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jun 32.7 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Jun 33.4 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jun 32.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Jun 32.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jun 30.3 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Jun after 31.9 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Jul after 32.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Jul after 31.7 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Jul after 32.9 °C 22 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Jul after 32.3 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Jul after 30.9 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Jul after 30.8 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Jul after 28.2 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Jul after 32.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Jul after 31.6 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jun 2017
After · 6 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 · 209Every 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 21 June 2017 and 29 June 2017: 9 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 6,282 hectares (62.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luiza (6,295 ha, 0.4 %); Luilu (30 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.