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Djema fire, 1 December 2017 Djema

Out · last detection 7 Dec 2017, 23:49 UTC

The fire started on 1 December 2017 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,109 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 135th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 39 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 100.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.8 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
9,109ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
1 Dec 2017 – 17 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
1 Dec
2017
Heat detections
88
in a single hotspot: 30 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
527MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Dec17 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1234567

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
45km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,324 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Djema where it started
    4,419 ha reached on 1 Dec
    0.1 %

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 Dec 32.9 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Dec 32.4 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Dec 33.5 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Dec 34.0 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Dec 34.4 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Dec 34.6 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Dec 33.7 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Dec 32.9 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Dec 33.5 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Dec 34.4 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Dec 34.4 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Dec 35.2 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Dec 34.8 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Dec 34.6 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Dec 34.1 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Dec 33.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Dec 33.7 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Dec after 34.5 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Dec after 35.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Dec after 35.5 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Dec after 36.0 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Dec after 36.4 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Dec after 36.5 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec after 35.4 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Dec after 33.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Dec after 33.3 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Dec after 34.0 °C 16 % 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 · 24 Nov 2017
After · 24 Dec 2017

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 · 88Every 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 1 December 2017 to 17 December 2017 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 December 2017 to 16 December 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,109 hectares (91.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djema (4,419 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
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.