Pweto fire, May 2021 Pweto
The fire started on 21 May 2021 in Pweto, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,124 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 52th largest in Haut-Katanga since 2016 (of 94 with a page). Number 58 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2021, of 97.
- Burnt area
- 6,124ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 21 May 2021 – 30 May 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 21 May
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 192
- in a single hotspot: 71 MW
- Danger at start
- 12
- Moderate · 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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 195 ha in 2016, 2,066 ha in 2018, 1,897 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,082 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Pweto where it started6,152 ha reached on 15 May0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 May | 25.7 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 22 May | 24.3 °C | 47 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 23 May | 23.5 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 May | 22.5 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 25 May | 23.5 °C | 47 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 May | 24.3 °C | 46 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 27 May | 26.2 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 28 May | 25.6 °C | 42 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 29 May | 25.4 °C | 42 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 30 May | 25.1 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 31 May after | 25.2 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 1 Jun after | 26.3 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 2 Jun after | 25.0 °C | 42 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 3 Jun after | 25.4 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 4 Jun after | 25.2 °C | 48 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Jun after | 23.9 °C | 51 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 6 Jun after | 22.1 °C | 54 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 7 Jun after | 23.9 °C | 45 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Jun after | 23.9 °C | 45 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 Jun after | 25.9 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
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 · 192Every 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 Pweto fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 May 2021 and 30 May 2021: 10 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 6,124 hectares (61.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pweto (6,152 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.2 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 40 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.