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Djema fire, 12 December 2019 Djema

Out · last detection 9 Jan 2020, 23:42 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2019 in Djema, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 73,476 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). The largest in Central African Republic in 2019, of 64.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Djema · 2018Djema · 2025Djema · 2016Raga · 2020

Burnt area
73,476ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
12 Dec 2019 – 8 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
12 Dec
2019
Heat detections
2,218
in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
431MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec8 Jan
9 Jan 2020

How it evolved, day by day

12 Dec 2019 · 310 MW · 16 13 Dec 2019 · 21 MW · 9 14 Dec 2019 · 185 MW · 44 15 Dec 2019 · 541 MW · 62 16 Dec 2019 · 2,054 MW · 180 17 Dec 2019 · 1,562 MW · 269 18 Dec 2019 · 2,815 MW · 525 19 Dec 2019 · 1,099 MW · 266 20 Dec 2019 · 355 MW · 46 21 Dec 2019 · 374 MW · 63 22 Dec 2019 · 304 MW · 80 23 Dec 2019 · 314 MW · 55 24 Dec 2019 · 286 MW · 92 25 Dec 2019 · 95 MW · 24 26 Dec 2019 · 300 MW · 35 27 Dec 2019 · 167 MW · 31 28 Dec 2019 · 764 MW · 93 29 Dec 2019 · 200 MW · 79 30 Dec 2019 · 54 MW · 18 31 Dec 2019 · 100 MW · 42 1 Jan 2020 · 100 MW · 25 2 Jan 2020 · 144 MW · 37 3 Jan 2020 · 71 MW · 20 4 Jan 2020 · 2 MW · 3 5 Jan 2020 · 42 MW · 15 6 Jan 2020 · 35 MW · 8 7 Jan 2020 · 82 MW · 21 8 Jan 2020 · 85 MW · 35 9 Jan 2020 · 36 MW · 25
12 Dec 17 Dec 18 Dec 22 Dec 27 Dec 1 Jan 6 Jan

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
44km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 38,754 ha in 2016, 24,080 ha in 2017, 28,401 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 53,365 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 46% of the area of London (735 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
    48,128 ha reached on 12 Dec
    1.3 %

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)
12 Dec 33.4 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Dec 30.7 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
14 Dec 33.5 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Dec 32.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Dec 32.9 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Dec 32.7 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Dec 32.3 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Dec 32.7 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Dec 32.7 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Dec 33.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Dec 34.0 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Dec 34.8 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Dec 34.7 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Dec 34.7 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Dec 33.1 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Dec 32.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Dec 32.4 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec 33.7 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Dec 34.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Dec 34.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Jan 34.8 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Jan 35.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jan 34.5 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Jan 32.4 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Jan 31.5 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Jan 32.9 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Jan 33.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Jan 34.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jan after 32.8 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Jan after 33.6 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Jan after 32.3 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2019
After · 15 Jan 2020

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 · 2,218Every 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 December 2019 to 8 January 2020 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 December 2019 to 1 January 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 73,476 hectares (734.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Djema (48,128 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 December 2019 to 1 January 2020. 2,218 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.