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Manono fire, 20 May 2017 Manono

Out · last detection 1 Jun 2017, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 20 May 2017 in Manono, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,092 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 30th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 18 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area
11,092ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
20 May 2017 – 31 May 2017
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
20 May
2017
Heat detections
431
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 May31 May

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627282930311

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,410 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Manono where it started
    11,147 ha reached on 16 May
    0.3 %

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)
16 May 32.3 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 May 32.4 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 May 31.8 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
19 May 33.6 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 May 33.5 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 May 33.7 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 May 33.9 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 May 34.4 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 May 34.7 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 May 35.1 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 May 35.4 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 May 34.9 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 May 33.1 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 May 34.8 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 May 33.7 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 May 33.2 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Jun after 33.1 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Jun after 34.6 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Jun after 35.4 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Jun after 34.4 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Jun after 35.5 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Jun after 34.6 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Jun after 34.7 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Jun after 34.7 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Jun after 34.6 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Jun after 34.3 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Jun after 34.6 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jun after 34.1 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Jun after 33.9 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Jun after 33.2 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Jun after 34.2 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Jun after 35.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jun after 34.4 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 May 2017
After · 7 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 · 431Every 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 20 May 2017 and 31 May 2017: 12 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 11,092 hectares (110.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Manono (11,147 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.