Manono fire, 22 July 2022 Kabongo, Manono
The fire started on 22 July 2022 in Manono, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,168 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 207th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 97 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2022, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 5,168ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 22 Jul 2022 – 28 Jul 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 22 Jul
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 131
- in a single hotspot: 34 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 972MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 21 ha in 2016, 2,748 ha in 2017, 29 ha in 2018, 1,155 ha in 2019, 735 ha in 2020, 654 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,573 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
4,670 ha reached on 18 Jul0.2 %
-
Manono where it started531 ha reached on 17 Jul0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jul | 33.8 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Jul | 33.4 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Jul | 33.4 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Jul | 33.6 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Jul | 34.0 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 27 Jul | 33.8 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Jul | 32.8 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 29 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Jul after | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 31 Jul after | 32.8 °C | 36 % | 21 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Aug after | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 4 Aug after | 34.3 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Aug after | 33.6 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
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 · 131Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,816 haKabongo12 August 2026 · 22 days · 14 km away
- 8,798 haKabongo26 July 2025 · 8 days · 23 km away
- 8,495 haManono19 August 2026 · 15 days · 23 km away
- 11,672 haMalemba-Nkulu15 August 2026 · 10 days · 35 km away
- 7,302 haManono9 July 2018 · 11 days · 37 km away
- 9,632 haManonoAugust 2021 · 6 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manono fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 July 2022 and 28 July 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 5,168 hectares (51.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kabongo (4,670 ha, 0.2 %); Manono (531 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °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.
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.