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Manono fire, 20 July 2022 Manono, Kabongo

Out · last detection 25 Jul 2022, 11:02 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2022 in Manono, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,034 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 227th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 105 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2022, of 106.

Burnt area
5,034ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
20 Jul 2022 – 25 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
20 Jul
2022
Heat detections
122
in a single hotspot: 163 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jul 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul25 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
41km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,000 ha in 2016, 247 ha in 2017, 1,222 ha in 2018, 2,878 ha in 2019, 2 ha in 2020, 1,452 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,665 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Manono where it started
    4,051 ha reached on 19 Jul
    0.1 %
  2. Kabongo
    1,013 ha reached on 22 Jul
    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)
20 Jul 33.0 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Jul 32.0 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jul 33.7 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Jul 33.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Jul 33.1 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jul 33.4 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jul after 33.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jul after 33.4 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jul after 32.5 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul after 32.4 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Jul after 32.8 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Jul after 32.7 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Aug after 32.3 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug after 33.8 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Aug after 33.1 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Aug after 34.1 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2022
After · 1 Aug 2022

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 · 122Every 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 July 2022 and 25 July 2022: 6 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 5,034 hectares (50.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Manono (4,051 ha, 0.1 %); Kabongo (1,013 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 41 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.

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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.