Burned area
satellite only7,131ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 3 Aug 2020 – 18 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CD · Democratic Republic of the Congo · –
Masi-Manimba fire, 3 August 2020 Masi-Manimba
Out · last detection 18 Aug 2020, 11:41 UTC
The fire started on 3 August 2020 in Masi-Manimba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,131 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 71th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 151 with a page). Number 80 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2020, of 165.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only16days
3 Aug 2020 to 18 Aug 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 18 Aug 2020, 11:41 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only3 Aug 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 3 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
The worst day
satellite only711MW
Total radiative power on 10 August 2020; hotspots that day: 41.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 10 Aug 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model31.1FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 3 Aug 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.3°C · 33% RH
High of 36.3 °C and minimum humidity of 33% on 16 August 2020; gusts of 34 km/h on 10 August 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 3 Aug 2020 – 18 Aug 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 1,100people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 9.7 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 20 August 2020 → 18 August 2020.
-
logStart date: 28 July 2020 → 3 August 2020.
-
logLast day with fire: 18 August 2020 → 20 August 2020.
-
logStart date: 3 August 2020 → 28 July 2020.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/masi-manimba-2020-08-2?v=2026-10-27A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire masi-manimba-2020-08-2.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-08-03 | 4 | 48 | 34 | 22.9 | 39 | 10 | 27.4 | 0 | 31.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-04 | 0 | 0 | 33.5 | 23.4 | 39 | 10.4 | 29.5 | 0 | 31 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-05 | 29 | 426 | 31.9 | 23.5 | 42 | 11.2 | 29.5 | 0 | 29.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-06 | 9 | 56 | 33.9 | 22.7 | 35 | 9.2 | 26.3 | 0 | 28.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-07 | 11 | 124 | 34.2 | 22.5 | 35 | 10.5 | 24.8 | 0 | 29.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-08 | 22 | 238 | 33.7 | 22.2 | 35 | 10.9 | 27 | 0.1 | 30 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-09 | 10 | 38 | 35.7 | 22.4 | 31 | 14.4 | 31.7 | 0 | 35.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-10 | 41 | 711 | 32.8 | 22.8 | 39 | 13 | 33.8 | 0 | 33.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-11 | 28 | 261 | 34.3 | 23.8 | 35 | 12.1 | 26.6 | 0 | 32.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-12 | 29 | 284 | 34.2 | 23.8 | 36 | 8.7 | 23.8 | 0 | 30.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-13 | 9 | 44 | 34.2 | 23.6 | 37 | 11 | 25.6 | 0 | 32.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-14 | 6 | 49 | 33 | 23.8 | 36 | 10.5 | 23 | 0 | 32 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-15 | 16 | 197 | 33.4 | 23.2 | 43 | 9.2 | 27 | 0.1 | 28.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-16 | 7 | 28 | 36.3 | 24 | 33 | 8.8 | 21.2 | 0 | 30.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-17 | 19 | 354 | 35.4 | 24.7 | 38 | 9.4 | 27 | 0 | 30.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-18 | 8 | 33 | 35.5 | 25 | 36 | 10.4 | 22.7 | 0.1 | 31.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2020-08-19 | 0 | 0 | 34.8 | 25.4 | 39 | 9.9 | 27 | 0 | 31.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2020-08-20 | 0 | 0 | 34.3 | 24.9 | 43 | 7.8 | 23.8 | 1 | 20.4 | moderado | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 7,131ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 3 Aug 2020 – 18 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 3 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 248
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 193MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
3 Aug18 Aug
18 Aug 2020
How it evolved, day by day
3 Aug
7 Aug
10 Aug
13 Aug
16 Aug
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
34km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 20 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Masi-Manimba where it started7,175 ha0.5 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area9.7 ha
Residents≈ 1,100
Inside the perimeter there were about 9.7 hectares of built-up land and about 1,100 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 26 % of the area in Democratic Republic of the Congo
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Aug | 34.0 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Aug | 33.5 °C | 39 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Aug | 31.9 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Aug | 33.9 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 7 Aug | 34.2 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Aug | 33.7 °C | 35 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Aug | 35.7 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Aug | 32.8 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 11 Aug | 34.3 °C | 35 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 12 Aug | 34.2 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Aug | 34.2 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Aug | 33.0 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Aug | 33.4 °C | 43 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Aug | 36.3 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Aug | 35.4 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Aug | 35.5 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Aug after | 34.8 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Aug after | 34.3 °C | 43 % | 24 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 31.1, a minimum humidity of 39% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.
FWI at the start
31.1
Minimum humidity
39 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Masi-Manimba fire, 3 August 2020
7,131 ha
16 days
FWI 31.1
Min. humidity 39 %
Masi-Manimba fire, August 2024
5,931 ha
24 days
FWI 27.5
Min. humidity 36 %
52 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 19.0 mm on 2 Sept.
Kasongo-Lunda fire, August 2024
5,420 ha
21 days
FWI 26.6
Min. humidity 39 %
209 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.6 mm on 31 Aug.
Kasongo-Lunda fire, August 2018
6,940 ha
19 days
FWI 31.7
Min. humidity 35 %
248 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 9.8 mm on 26 Aug.
Bulungu fire, August 2023
6,486 ha
20 days
FWI 29.6
Min. humidity 40 %
115 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 14.8 mm on 28 Aug.
Kwamouth fire, July 2024
5,835 ha
5 days
FWI 31.9
Min. humidity 44 %
139 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 20 days
- median duration
- 5,931 ha
- median area
- 13 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 3.6 mm
- rain at the end (median; 13 of 15 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (7,131 ha against a median of 5,931 ha) and lasted 16 days, against 20 days.
In 2 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
1.0 mmfirst rain
20 Aug2 days after it ended
34km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 18 Aug, and on 20 Aug 1.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 15, with a median of 3.6 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 27 Jul 2020
After · 25 Aug 2020
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 0Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,151 haMasi-Manimba6 August 2026 · 30 days · 14 km away
- 11,179 haKenge24 August 2017 · 13 days · 17 km away
- 26,397 haMasi-Manimba24 July 2020 · 34 days · 21 km away
- 12,144 haMasi-Manimba1 August 2025 · 28 days · 32 km away
- 111,205 haMasi-Manimba27 July 2026 · 49 days · 36 km away
- 11,255 haMasi-Manimba5 August 2026 · 23 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Masi-Manimba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 August 2020 and 18 August 2020: 16 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 7,131 hectares (71.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Masi-Manimba (7,175 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Democratic Republic of the Congo (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 20 days and their median area 5,931 ha; 13 % went past 10,000 ha. In 2 of 15, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.
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
History of this page · 4 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 20 August 2020 → 18 August 2020.
- Start date: 28 July 2020 → 3 August 2020.
- Last day with fire: 18 August 2020 → 20 August 2020.
- Start date: 3 August 2020 → 28 July 2020.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.