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Dékoa fire, January 2020 Dékoa, Ndenga

Out · last detection 17 Feb 2020, 12:14 UTC

The fire started on 22 January 2020 in Dékoa, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,273 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Kémo since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 76 in Central African Republic in 2020, of 103.

Burnt area
6,273ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
22 Jan 2020 – 16 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
22 Jan
2020
Heat detections
348
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jan16 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627282930124567891011121314151617

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
43km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,629 ha in 2016, 3,523 ha in 2017, 1,572 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,551 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Dékoa where it started
    5,278 ha reached on 22 Jan
    8.2 %
  2. Ndenga
    1,037 ha reached on 23 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
22 Jan 34.7 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Jan 33.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Jan 32.6 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Jan 33.0 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Jan 34.8 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Jan 35.4 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Jan 35.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Jan 36.6 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Jan 36.3 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Jan 35.0 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Feb 35.3 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Feb 35.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Feb 35.7 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Feb 34.6 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Feb 35.3 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Feb 35.6 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Feb 37.0 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Feb 38.6 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Feb 37.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Feb 37.0 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Feb 36.0 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
12 Feb 34.6 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Feb 35.9 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Feb 37.0 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Feb 38.1 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Feb 39.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Feb after 39.7 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Feb after 36.6 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Feb after 37.7 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Feb after 37.2 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Feb after 35.3 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Feb after 39.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Feb after 39.4 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Feb after 38.3 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Feb after 37.3 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Feb after 36.1 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jan 2020
After · 23 Feb 2020

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 · 348Every 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 Dékoa fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 January 2020 to 16 February 2020 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 January 2020 to 9 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,273 hectares (62.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dékoa (5,278 ha, 8.2 %); Ndenga (1,037 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.