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CD · Congo - Kinshasa · →

Luiza fire, 2 July 2017 Luiza, Kapanga

Out · last detection 6 Jul 2017, 12:36 UTC

The fire started on 2 July 2017 in Luiza, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,129 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 81th largest in Central Kasai since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 126 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area
5,129ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
2 Jul 2017 – 6 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
2 Jul
2017
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
980MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jul6 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

23456

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
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,203 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,531 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Luiza where it started
    3,867 ha reached on 25 Jun
    0.2 %
  2. Kapanga
    1,299 ha reached on 29 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)
2 Jul 31.7 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Jul 33.2 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Jul 31.9 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Jul 31.1 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jul 30.8 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jul after 28.1 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
8 Jul after 32.5 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Jul after 32.2 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Jul after 33.0 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jul after 30.7 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Jul after 29.2 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
13 Jul after 31.7 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Jul after 31.2 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jul after 32.4 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Jul after 32.1 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jun 2017
After · 13 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 · 161Every 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 2017 and 6 July 2017: 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 5,129 hectares (51.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luiza (3,867 ha, 0.2 %); Kapanga (1,299 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.