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Djema fire, 3 December 2016 Djema

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2016, 23:31 UTC

The fire started on 3 December 2016 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,557 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 129th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 66 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Burnt area
9,557ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
3 Dec 2016 – 20 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
3 Dec
2016
Heat detections
360
in a single hotspot: 114 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Dec20 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

3456789101112131415161718192021

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
47km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 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
    9,623 ha reached on 3 Dec
    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)
3 Dec 33.9 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
4 Dec 34.2 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Dec 34.5 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Dec 35.2 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Dec 34.0 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Dec 34.9 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Dec 34.6 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Dec 34.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Dec 34.4 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Dec 34.8 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Dec 35.0 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Dec 34.5 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Dec 32.7 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Dec 33.5 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Dec 34.0 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Dec 33.9 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Dec 33.8 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Dec 34.4 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Dec after 35.4 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Dec after 35.2 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec after 36.5 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec after 36.3 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Dec after 35.8 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Dec after 34.7 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Dec after 34.4 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec after 34.5 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Dec after 35.6 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Dec after 35.8 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Nov 2016
After · 27 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 · 360Every 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 3 December 2016 to 20 December 2016 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 December 2016 to 19 December 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,557 hectares (95.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djema (9,623 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 47 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.