Luiza fire, June 2022 Luiza
The fire started on 14 June 2022 in Luiza, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,146 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 33th largest in Central Kasai since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 31 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2022, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 8,146ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 14 Jun 2022 – 20 Jun 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 14 Jun
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 248
- in a single hotspot: 220 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,815 ha in 2016, 5,409 ha in 2017, 3,856 ha in 2018, 5,926 ha in 2019, 2,869 ha in 2020, 4,932 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,132 ha that had burned before.
- 4,471 ha Luiza fire, July 2019 9,629 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,866 ha Luiza fire, July 2016 7,639 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,823 ha Luiza fire, June 2017 6,101 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,624 ha Luiza fire, June 2021 5,842 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,308 ha Luiza fire, June 2017 9,057 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,308 ha Luiza fire, June 2021 5,730 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Luiza where it started8,207 ha reached on 7 Jun0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jun | 32.1 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Jun | 32.5 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Jun | 33.2 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Jun | 33.2 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Jun | 32.4 °C | 20 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Jun | 31.8 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 20 Jun | 29.5 °C | 40 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Jun after | 30.7 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 22 Jun after | 32.4 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 23 Jun after | 31.9 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Jun after | 31.8 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Jun after | 31.8 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Jun after | 31.5 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jun after | 30.9 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Jun after | 29.9 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Jun after | 29.6 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Jun after | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 248Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Luiza fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 June 2022 and 20 June 2022: 7 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 8,146 hectares (81.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Luiza (8,207 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.
Report an error
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.