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Djema fire, 12 January 2016 Djema

Out · last detection 6 Feb 2016, 23:13 UTC

The fire started on 12 January 2016 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,293 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 38th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 13 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Djema · 2019Djema · 2025Djema · 2016Djema · 2022

Burnt area
32,293ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
12 Jan 2016 – 6 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
12 Jan
2016
Heat detections
1,082
in a single hotspot: 80 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
264MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jan6 Feb
6 Feb 2016

How it evolved, day by day

12 Jan 2016 · 648 MW · 36 13 Jan 2016 · 209 MW · 44 14 Jan 2016 · 88 MW · 30 15 Jan 2016 · 13 MW · 12 16 Jan 2016 · 91 MW · 18 17 Jan 2016 · 199 MW · 31 18 Jan 2016 · 79 MW · 11 19 Jan 2016 · 1,312 MW · 231 20 Jan 2016 · 953 MW · 140 21 Jan 2016 · 384 MW · 93 22 Jan 2016 · 699 MW · 63 23 Jan 2016 · 223 MW · 57 24 Jan 2016 · 546 MW · 112 25 Jan 2016 · 136 MW · 43 26 Jan 2016 · 356 MW · 62 27 Jan 2016 · 149 MW · 29 28 Jan 2016 · 47 MW · 14 29 Jan 2016 · 0 MW · 1 30 Jan 2016 · 2 MW · 2 31 Jan 2016 · 15 MW · 3 1 Feb 2016 · 5 MW · 1 4 Feb 2016 · 12 MW · 6 5 Feb 2016 · 42 MW · 8 6 Feb 2016 · 133 MW · 35
12 Jan 16 Jan 19 Jan 20 Jan 24 Jan 28 Jan 1 Feb

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
46km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 20% of the area of London (323 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Djema where it started
    32,474 ha reached on 12 Jan
    0.9 %

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)
12 Jan 36.2 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Jan 36.1 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Jan 36.1 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Jan 35.3 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Jan 35.8 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Jan 37.5 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Jan 36.8 °C 13 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Jan 36.0 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Jan 35.5 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
21 Jan 36.6 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Jan 37.7 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Jan 36.1 °C 9 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Jan 35.8 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Jan 34.1 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Jan 33.4 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
27 Jan 32.1 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Jan 32.6 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Jan 31.6 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
30 Jan 32.4 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Jan 33.8 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Feb 35.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Feb 34.8 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Feb 35.8 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Feb 37.5 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Feb 38.7 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
6 Feb 38.6 °C 8 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
7 Feb after 36.6 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
8 Feb after 35.9 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Feb after 36.5 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Feb after 36.9 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Feb after 35.5 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
12 Feb after 36.2 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Feb after 37.3 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Feb after 37.9 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Feb after 38.7 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Feb after 39.5 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jan 2016
After · 13 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 · 1,082Every 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 Djema fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 January 2016 to 6 February 2016 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 January 2016 to 30 January 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 32,293 hectares (322.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djema (32,474 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 15 January 2016 to 30 January 2016. 1,082 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.