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Manono fire, 18 May 2017 Manono

Out · last detection 27 May 2017, 11:46 UTC

The fire started on 18 May 2017 in Manono, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,141 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 137th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 84 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area
6,141ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
18 May 2017 – 26 May 2017
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
18 May
2017
Heat detections
186
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 May 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 May26 May

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
44km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,173 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Manono where it started
    6,174 ha reached on 18 May
    0.2 %

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)
18 May 32.1 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 May 33.4 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 May 33.1 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 May 33.3 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 May 33.6 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 May 33.9 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 May 34.0 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 May 34.3 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 May 34.7 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 May after 34.5 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 May after 32.7 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 May after 34.2 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 May after 33.1 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 May after 32.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Jun after 32.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Jun after 34.1 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Jun after 35.0 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Jun after 33.9 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Jun after 34.7 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 May 2017
After · 2 Jun 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 · 186Every 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 Manono fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 May 2017 and 26 May 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 6,141 hectares (61.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Manono (6,174 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.