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Djema fire, 27 November 2016 Djema

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2016, 12:35 UTC

The fire started on 27 November 2016 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,850 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 116th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 63 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Djema · 2025Djema · 2025Djema · 2020Raga · 2024

Burnt area
10,850ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
25days
27 Nov 2016 – 21 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
27 Nov
2016
Heat detections
374
in a single hotspot: 92 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Average daily power
130MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Nov21 Dec
21 Dec 2016

How it evolved, day by day

27 Nov 2016 · 120 MW · 14 28 Nov 2016 · 76 MW · 7 29 Nov 2016 · 1 MW · 1 1 Dec 2016 · 8 MW · 1 3 Dec 2016 · 13 MW · 2 4 Dec 2016 · 4 MW · 1 5 Dec 2016 · 323 MW · 43 6 Dec 2016 · 269 MW · 32 7 Dec 2016 · 157 MW · 12 8 Dec 2016 · 265 MW · 35 9 Dec 2016 · 596 MW · 75 10 Dec 2016 · 224 MW · 36 11 Dec 2016 · 44 MW · 13 12 Dec 2016 · 206 MW · 20 13 Dec 2016 · 384 MW · 32 14 Dec 2016 · 170 MW · 17 15 Dec 2016 · 3 MW · 4 16 Dec 2016 · 11 MW · 4 17 Dec 2016 · 6 MW · 3 18 Dec 2016 · 36 MW · 7 19 Dec 2016 · 48 MW · 8 20 Dec 2016 · 15 MW · 6 21 Dec 2016 · 7 MW · 1
27 Nov 3 Dec 7 Dec 9 Dec 11 Dec 15 Dec 19 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

35°high
49km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 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 6.9% of the area of London (108 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
    10,948 ha reached on 27 Nov
    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)
27 Nov 34.4 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Nov 34.4 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Nov 34.6 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Nov 34.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Dec 33.6 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Dec 33.4 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Dec 33.3 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Dec 33.6 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Dec 34.5 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Dec 35.0 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Dec 34.0 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Dec 33.9 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Dec 33.4 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Dec 33.8 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Dec 33.2 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Dec 33.6 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Dec 34.0 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Dec 33.1 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Dec 31.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Dec 32.3 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Dec 32.3 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Dec 32.3 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Dec 32.6 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Dec 33.2 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Dec 34.0 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Dec after 34.1 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec after 35.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Dec after 35.4 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Dec after 33.9 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Dec after 33.3 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Dec after 32.3 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Dec after 32.7 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Dec after 34.5 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Dec after 34.5 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Dec after 33.7 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Nov 2016
After · 28 Dec 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 · 374Every 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 27 November 2016 to 21 December 2016 (25 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 December 2016 to 14 December 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,850 hectares (108.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djema (10,948 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 December 2016 to 14 December 2016. 374 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.