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Bouca Bobo fire, 23 January 2016 Bouca Bobo, Ouham Fafa

Out · last detection 13 Feb 2016, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2016 in Bouca Bobo, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,890 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 17th largest in Ouham since 2016 (of 32 with a page). Number 96 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Burnt area
6,890ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
23 Jan 2016 – 13 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
23 Jan
2016
Heat detections
328
in a single hotspot: 275 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

23252829303112345678910111213

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
40km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Bouca Bobo where it started
    6,812 ha reached on 23 Jan
    2.1 %
  2. Ouham Fafa
    126 ha reached on 25 Jan
    0.1 %

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)
23 Jan 34.5 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Jan 33.2 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Jan 32.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Jan 32.1 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Jan 31.3 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Jan 32.2 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Jan 32.2 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Jan 32.0 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Jan 33.4 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Feb 34.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Feb 35.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Feb 36.7 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Feb 37.8 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Feb 37.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Feb 37.2 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Feb 35.3 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Feb 34.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Feb 34.5 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Feb 34.5 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Feb 35.0 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Feb 34.6 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Feb 35.9 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Feb after 36.6 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Feb after 36.9 °C 7 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Feb after 38.4 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Feb after 40.0 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Feb after 38.5 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Feb after 39.2 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Feb after 39.5 °C 12 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Feb after 38.9 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Feb after 39.6 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Feb after 37.7 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 16 Jan 2016
After · 20 Feb 2016

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 · 328Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Central African Republic ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bouca Bobo fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 January 2016 to 13 February 2016 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 January 2016 to 6 February 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,890 hectares (68.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bouca Bobo (6,812 ha, 2.1 %); Ouham Fafa (126 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Central African Republic (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.

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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 ADM3 (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.