Moba fire, August 2023 Moba
The fire started on 26 August 2023 in Moba, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,085 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 221th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 74 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2023, of 76.
- Burnt area
- 5,085ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 26 Aug 2023 – 30 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 26 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 214
- in a single hotspot: 89 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.7GW
- 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
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,680 ha in 2016, 1,100 ha in 2017, 726 ha in 2018, 2,751 ha in 2019, 3,845 ha in 2020, 1,306 ha in 2021, 1,711 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,057 ha that had burned before.
- 3,845 ha Moba fire, September 2020 23,821 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,221 ha Moba fire, August 2022 10,467 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 114 ha Moba fire, July 2016 9,518 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Moba where it started5,127 ha reached on 21 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Aug | 30.0 °C | 41 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 27 Aug | 31.6 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Aug | 29.2 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Aug | 28.5 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Aug | 27.9 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Sept after | 29.9 °C | 36 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 4 Sept after | 29.5 °C | 41 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Sept after | 28.7 °C | 43 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Sept after | 29.2 °C | 52 % | 18 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 47 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 8 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
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 · 214Every 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 Moba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2023 and 30 August 2023: 5 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 5,085 hectares (50.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Moba (5,127 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.