Mitwaba fire, 19 June 2026 Mitwaba
The fire started on 19 June 2026 in Mitwaba, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 30,195 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 2th largest in Haut-Katanga since 2016 (of 94 with a page). Number 40 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2026, of 523.
- Burnt area
- 30,195ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 19 Jun 2026 – 4 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 19 Jun
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 833
- in a single hotspot: 194 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.5GW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,118 ha in 2016, 4,868 ha in 2017, 14,093 ha in 2018, 12,264 ha in 2019, 7,204 ha in 2020, 12,487 ha in 2021, 8,359 ha in 2022, 8,415 ha in 2023, 10,131 ha in 2024, 17,082 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 28,989 ha that had burned before.
- 6,551 ha Mitwaba fire, July 2025 15,427 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,529 ha Mitwaba fire, June 2025 9,275 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,338 ha Mitwaba fire, July 2021 5,347 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,908 ha Mitwaba fire, June 2020 5,650 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,663 ha Mitwaba fire, July 2021 5,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,506 ha Mitwaba fire, June 2024 7,968 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,142 ha Mitwaba fire, June 2025 7,044 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 862 ha Mitwaba fire, June 2016 5,187 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mitwaba where it started30,365 ha reached on 13 Jun1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jun | 25.0 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 14 Jun | 25.6 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 15 Jun | 26.1 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 16 Jun | 26.1 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 17 Jun | 25.8 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 18 Jun | 26.7 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 19 Jun | 25.6 °C | 40 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 20 Jun | 26.1 °C | 38 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Jun | 24.8 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Jun | 24.5 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Jun | 24.5 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 24 Jun | 24.8 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Jun | 25.7 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Jun | 25.5 °C | 36 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 27 Jun | 24.9 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Jun | 24.9 °C | 34 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Jun | 25.3 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Jun | 26.1 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Jul | 26.5 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 2 Jul | 26.6 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Jul | 26.3 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Jul | 25.9 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Jul after | 25.1 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Jul after | 24.8 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Jul after | 24.6 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Jul after | 25.8 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Jul after | 25.6 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Jul after | 25.8 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 11 Jul after | 25.8 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Jul after | 26.0 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Jul after | 26.1 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Jul after | 25.7 °C | 40 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Jul after | 25.6 °C | 38 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Jul after | 24.2 °C | 30 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Jul after | 24.1 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Jul after | 24.7 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Jul after | 25.0 °C | 29 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Jul after | 25.5 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
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 27 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 45: 3.0 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 · 833Every 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 19 June 2026 and 4 July 2026: 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 30,195 hectares (302.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mitwaba (30,365 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class 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.