Burned area
satellite only13,275ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 6 Dec 2017 – 26 Dec 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CF · Central African Republic · –
Dar El Kouti fire, 6 December 2017 Dar El Kouti
Out · last detection 26 Dec 2017, 11:57 UTC
The fire started on 6 December 2017 in Dar El Kouti, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,275 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 31th largest in Bamingui-Bangoran since 2016 (of 166 with a page). Number 22 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 97.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only21days
6 Dec 2017 to 26 Dec 2017: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 26 Dec 2017, 11:57 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only6 Dec 2017
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 6 Dec 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only461
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 52 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 6 Dec 2017 – 26 Dec 2017
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only723MW
Total radiative power on 6 December 2017; hotspots that day: 49.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 6 Dec 2017
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model49.1FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 16.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 6 Dec 2017, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model38.6°C · 12% RH
High of 38.6 °C and minimum humidity of 12% on 23 December 2017; gusts of 42 km/h on 22 December 2017.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 6 Dec 2017 – 26 Dec 2017
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 25 December 2017 → 26 December 2017.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 13,275 ha
- Dates
- 6 Dec 2017 – 26 Dec 2017
- Name
- Dar El Kouti
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/dar-el-kouti-2017-12?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire dar-el-kouti-2017-12.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-12-06 | 49 | 723 | 36.1 | 19.3 | 20 | 9.7 | 26.3 | 0 | 49.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-12-07 | 13 | 25 | 35.6 | 21.5 | 19 | 16.3 | 36.7 | 0 | 62.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-08 | 26 | 197 | 34.1 | 22.8 | 20 | 19 | 40.7 | 0 | 67.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-09 | 22 | 123 | 34.9 | 23.5 | 18 | 18 | 39.6 | 0 | 65.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-10 | 24 | 89 | 36.2 | 22.1 | 18 | 12.5 | 30.2 | 0 | 57 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-11 | 21 | 175 | 36.7 | 21.2 | 19 | 8.7 | 22.3 | 0 | 50.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-12 | 59 | 480 | 36.7 | 21.9 | 17 | 12.6 | 28.1 | 0 | 57.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-13 | 35 | 386 | 36.9 | 23 | 15 | 17.8 | 40 | 0 | 64 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-14 | 23 | 240 | 36.2 | 22.6 | 16 | 16.4 | 37.8 | 0 | 64.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-15 | 3 | 6 | 35.9 | 22.4 | 16 | 16.2 | 36.7 | 0 | 63 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-16 | 23 | 76 | 35.2 | 22.2 | 15 | 16.8 | 36.4 | 0 | 62.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-17 | 15 | 131 | 35.3 | 21.8 | 16 | 15.2 | 33.5 | 0 | 55.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-18 | 31 | 43 | 35.5 | 20.8 | 16 | 12.9 | 30.6 | 0 | 59.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-19 | 12 | 40 | 36.9 | 20.1 | 15 | 11.6 | 29.5 | 0 | 60.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-20 | 13 | 232 | 37.2 | 20.3 | 17 | 12 | 27.7 | 0 | 59.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-21 | 0 | 0 | 38.2 | 23.7 | 14 | 16.9 | 36.4 | 0 | 73.7 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-22 | 1 | 2 | 38.4 | 22.9 | 13 | 19.6 | 41.8 | 0 | 77.6 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-23 | 0 | 0 | 38.6 | 23.1 | 12 | 9.8 | 26.3 | 0 | 60.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-24 | 28 | 297 | 37.1 | 20.9 | 11 | 14.7 | 34.9 | 0 | 70.4 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-25 | 38 | 498 | 34.7 | 21.9 | 15 | 18.4 | 40.3 | 0 | 71.9 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-26 | 25 | 617 | 34.8 | 21.9 | 15 | 18.9 | 40.7 | 0 | 72.5 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2017-12-27 | 0 | 0 | 34.5 | 20.7 | 15 | 15.2 | 34.9 | 0 | 66.3 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-28 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 19.5 | 16 | 10 | 26.3 | 0 | 58.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-29 | 0 | 0 | 35.3 | 20.2 | 16 | 9.7 | 26.3 | 0 | 60.2 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-30 | 0 | 0 | 36.3 | 21.2 | 14 | 13.6 | 31.7 | 0 | 68.3 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-12-31 | 0 | 0 | 34.8 | 19.6 | 15 | 14.1 | 28.8 | 0 | 62.2 | extremo | 0 |
| 2018-01-01 | 0 | 0 | 32.5 | 21.1 | 15 | 20.4 | 43.9 | 0 | 77.5 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2018-01-02 | 0 | 0 | 31.3 | 18 | 13 | 19.4 | 41.4 | 0 | 70.6 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2018-01-03 | 0 | 0 | 31.4 | 17.8 | 10 | 17.8 | 39.2 | 0 | 70.3 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2018-01-04 | 0 | 0 | 31.4 | 17.1 | 11 | 16.5 | 38.2 | 0 | 69.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2018-01-05 | 0 | 0 | 31.2 | 17.1 | 10 | 18.6 | 40.7 | 0 | 68.6 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 13,275ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 6 Dec 2017 – 26 Dec 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 6 Dec
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 461
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 231MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
6 Dec26 Dec
26 Dec 2017
How it evolved, day by day
6 Dec
10 Dec
14 Dec
18 Dec
24 Dec
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
39°high
42km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity
It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,715 ha in 2016.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Dar El Kouti where it started13,357 ha reached on 6 Dec0.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Dec | 36.1 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 7 Dec | 35.6 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 8 Dec | 34.1 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 9 Dec | 34.9 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 10 Dec | 36.2 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 11 Dec | 36.7 °C | 19 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 12 Dec | 36.7 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 13 Dec | 36.9 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Dec | 36.2 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 15 Dec | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 16 Dec | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 17 Dec | 35.3 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 18 Dec | 35.5 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Dec | 36.9 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 20 Dec | 37.2 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 21 Dec | 38.2 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 22 Dec | 38.4 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 23 Dec | 38.6 °C | 12 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 24 Dec | 37.1 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 25 Dec | 34.7 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 26 Dec | 34.8 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 27 Dec after | 34.5 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 28 Dec after | 36.0 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 29 Dec after | 35.3 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 30 Dec after | 36.3 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 31 Dec after | 34.8 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 1 Jan after | 32.5 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 2 Jan after | 31.3 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 3 Jan after | 31.4 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 4 Jan after | 31.4 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 5 Jan after | 31.2 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 49.1, a minimum humidity of 20% and 16 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 39.
FWI at the start
49.1
Minimum humidity
20 %
Days without rain
16
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Dar El Kouti fire, 6 December 2017
13,275 ha
21 days
FWI 49.1
Min. humidity 20 %
Ridina fire, November 2016
7,211 ha
13 days
FWI 50.7
Min. humidity 20 %
137 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Ouandja fire, November 2021
7,703 ha
20 days
FWI 49.7
Min. humidity 20 %
103 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Ouandja fire, November 2016
5,481 ha
9 days
FWI 43.9
Min. humidity 20 %
108 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Vokouma fire, November 2019
21,656 ha
24 days
FWI 49.5
Min. humidity 18 %
51 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Haraze-Mangueigne fire, November 2023
2,126 ha
2 days
FWI 49.9
Min. humidity 17 %
163 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 10 days
- median duration
- 4,558 ha
- median area
- 8 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- —
- rain at the end (median; 0 of 39 had it)
It was 2.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 21 days, against 10 days.
Only 1 of its 39 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
42km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 26 Dec, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 39 twins had rain when they ended.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 29 Nov 2017
After · 2 Jan 2018
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 461Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dar El Kouti fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 December 2017 to 26 December 2017 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 December 2017 to 20 December 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,275 hectares (132.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dar El Kouti (13,357 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 78, class Very 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 39. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 4,558 ha; 8 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 39 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
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
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 25 December 2017 → 26 December 2017.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 6 December 2017 to 20 December 2017. 461 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.