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Djema fire, 1 January 2016 Djema

Out · last detection 9 Jan 2016, 11:02 UTC

The fire started on 1 January 2016 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,543 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 146th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 76 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
8,543ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
1 Jan 2016 – 9 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
1 Jan
2016
Heat detections
158
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
596MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jan9 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

123456789

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Djema where it started
    6,652 ha reached on 1 Jan
    0.2 %

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)
1 Jan 34.9 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Jan 32.9 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jan 31.3 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Jan 33.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jan 34.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Jan 35.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Jan 35.5 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Jan 36.7 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Jan 35.8 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jan after 34.4 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Jan after 34.9 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Jan after 35.3 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Jan after 34.9 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Jan after 34.7 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Jan after 33.8 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Jan after 34.1 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Jan after 36.0 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jan after 36.3 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Jan after 34.4 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Dec 2015
After · 16 Jan 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 · 158Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 January 2016 and 9 January 2016: 9 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,543 hectares (85.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djema (6,652 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.