Poko fire, February 2016 Poko
The fire started on 5 February 2016 in Poko, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,210 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 42th largest in Lower Uele since 2016 (of 48 with a page). Number 132 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.
- Burnt area
- 5,210ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 5 Feb 2016 – 26 Feb 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 5 Feb
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 349
- in a single hotspot: 68 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.0GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 1 Mar.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Poko where it started5,245 ha reached on 29 Jan0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Feb | 38.3 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 6 Feb | 37.7 °C | 15 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Feb | 34.8 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Feb | 33.8 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 9 Feb | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Feb | 35.4 °C | 17 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Feb | 36.0 °C | 8 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Feb | 35.5 °C | 20 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Feb | 35.8 °C | 13 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Feb | 35.0 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Feb | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Feb | 36.1 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Feb | 35.0 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Feb | 35.3 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Feb | 33.0 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Feb | 34.7 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Feb | 33.0 °C | 47 % | 30 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 22 Feb | 36.3 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 2.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 23 Feb | 34.6 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Feb | 35.0 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Feb | 35.8 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Feb | 34.9 °C | 32 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 29 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Mar after | 32.7 °C | 49 % | 33 km/h | 2.6 mm | Low 10 |
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 · 349Every 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 Poko fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 February 2016 and 26 February 2016: 22 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 5,210 hectares (52.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Poko (5,245 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.