Skip to content
worldfires
CD · Congo - Kinshasa · →

Mitwaba fire, 2 July 2016 Mitwaba, Bukama

Out · last detection 5 Jul 2016, 11:59 UTC

The fire started on 2 July 2016 in Mitwaba, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,135 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 86th largest in Haut-Katanga since 2016 (of 94 with a page). Number 142 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area
5,135ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
2 Jul 2016 – 5 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
2 Jul
2016
Heat detections
172
in a single hotspot: 117 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jul5 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2345

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
54km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mitwaba where it started
    2,912 ha reached on 26 Jun
    0.1 %
  2. Bukama
    2,264 ha reached on 27 Jun
    0.1 %

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)
2 Jul 26.2 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Jul 24.2 °C 24 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Jul 23.2 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Jul 22.8 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Jul after 23.6 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Jul after 23.5 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Jul after 23.0 °C 27 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Jul after 22.3 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Jul after 20.6 °C 30 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jul after 22.9 °C 26 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Jul after 20.9 °C 31 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Jul after 22.2 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Jul after 22.4 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Jul after 23.6 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jun 2016
After · 12 Jul 2016

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 · 172Every 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 Mitwaba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 July 2016 and 5 July 2016: 4 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 5,135 hectares (51.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mitwaba (2,912 ha, 0.1 %); Bukama (2,264 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.