Mitwaba fire, 11 June 2026 Mitwaba
The fire started on 11 June 2026 in Mitwaba, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,795 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 41th largest in Haut-Katanga since 2016 (of 94 with a page). Number 317 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2026, of 523.
- Burnt area
- 6,795ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 11 Jun 2026 – 16 Jun 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 11 Jun
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 113
- in a single hotspot: 51 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 665MW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,210 ha in 2016, 5,720 ha in 2018, 1,567 ha in 2019, 4,842 ha in 2020, 2,237 ha in 2021, 2,252 ha in 2022, 848 ha in 2023, 2,693 ha in 2024, 2,066 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,722 ha that had burned before.
- 5,720 ha Mitwaba fire, June 2018 16,851 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,664 ha Mitwaba fire, July 2020 7,351 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,753 ha Mitwaba fire, June 2016 5,357 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,066 ha Mitwaba fire, June 2025 7,044 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mitwaba where it started6,837 ha reached on 11 Jun0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Jun | 23.2 °C | 44 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 12 Jun | 22.5 °C | 46 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 13 Jun | 22.5 °C | 44 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 14 Jun | 23.1 °C | 43 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 15 Jun | 23.6 °C | 43 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 16 Jun | 24.2 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 17 Jun after | 23.4 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 18 Jun after | 24.9 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 19 Jun after | 23.6 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 20 Jun after | 23.7 °C | 44 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 21 Jun after | 22.2 °C | 47 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 22 Jun after | 22.0 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Jun after | 22.3 °C | 38 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 24 Jun after | 22.6 °C | 42 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 25 Jun after | 23.1 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Jun after | 22.7 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 12 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 113Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mitwaba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 June 2026 and 16 June 2026: 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 6,795 hectares (68.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mitwaba (6,837 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 24.2 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
- 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.