How long did the Bouca Bobo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 January 2017 to 18 February 2017 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 January 2017 to 11 February 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 19,428 hectares (194.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bouca Bobo (13,460 ha, 4.2 %); Ouham Fafa (6,098 ha, 4.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.

CF · Central African Republic · 2017-01-24 → 2017-02-18

Bouca Bobo fire, 24 January 2017 Bouca Bobo, Ouham Fafa

Out · last detection 18 Feb 2017, 12:28 UTC

The fire started on 24 January 2017 in Bouca Bobo, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,428 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Ouham since 2016 (of 32 with a page). Number 16 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 100.

Burnt area: 19,428ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 26days; 24 Jan 2017 – 18 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; sub-prefectures
Started on: 24 Jan; 2017
Heat detections: 909; in a single hotspot: 190 MW
Danger at start: 44; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 14.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 18 Feb 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jan18 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

242728293031123456789101112131415161718

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

38km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,386 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,474 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Bouca Bobo where it started

13,460 ha reached on 24 Jan

4.2 %
Ouham Fafa

6,098 ha reached on 24 Jan

4.3 %

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)
24 Jan	37.5 °C	20 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
25 Jan	35.4 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
26 Jan	35.6 °C	39 %	33 km/h	1.0 mm	High 26
27 Jan	36.5 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Jan	37.1 °C	16 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
29 Jan	36.1 °C	16 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
30 Jan	36.1 °C	24 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
31 Jan	37.3 °C	14 %	23 km/h	1.4 mm	Very high 40
1 Feb	37.9 °C	12 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
2 Feb	37.2 °C	11 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
3 Feb	35.8 °C	14 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
4 Feb	35.9 °C	15 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
5 Feb	37.0 °C	11 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
6 Feb	38.2 °C	9 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
7 Feb	38.1 °C	9 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
8 Feb	38.0 °C	8 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
9 Feb	37.7 °C	8 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
10 Feb	37.4 °C	9 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
11 Feb	37.3 °C	12 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
12 Feb	38.1 °C	11 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
13 Feb	37.5 °C	12 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
14 Feb	34.6 °C	11 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
15 Feb	34.6 °C	10 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
16 Feb	34.8 °C	11 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
17 Feb	34.6 °C	10 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
18 Feb	34.8 °C	13 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
19 Feb after	35.2 °C	13 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
20 Feb after	36.4 °C	10 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
21 Feb after	37.5 °C	9 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
22 Feb after	37.7 °C	14 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
23 Feb after	38.1 °C	12 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
24 Feb after	37.7 °C	11 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
25 Feb after	38.0 °C	12 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
26 Feb after	36.1 °C	23 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
27 Feb after	38.8 °C	9 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
28 Feb after	38.5 °C	12 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 17 Jan 2017

After · 25 Feb 2017

Before After

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 · 909Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

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 24 January 2017 to 18 February 2017 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 January 2017 to 11 February 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 19,428 hectares (194.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bouca Bobo (13,460 ha, 4.2 %); Ouham Fafa (6,098 ha, 4.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.

Where it burned