How long did the Mala fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 January 2016 to 24 February 2016 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 February 2016 to 17 February 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,907 hectares (69.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Mala (6,951 ha, 3.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.

CF · Central African Republic · 2016-01-26 → 2016-02-24

Mala fire, January 2016 Mala

Out · last detection 24 Feb 2016, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 26 January 2016 in Mala, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,907 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 3th largest in Kémo since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 95 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Burnt area: 6,907ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 30days; 26 Jan 2016 – 24 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; sub-prefectures
Started on: 26 Jan; 2016
Heat detections: 631; in a single hotspot: 90 MW
Danger at start: 50; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 6.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Feb 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jan24 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

26282930311234567910111213141516171821222324

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

The weather it burned in

39°high

44km/h · peak gust

9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 4 Mar.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Mala where it started

6,951 ha reached on 26 Jan

3.3 %

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)
26 Jan	33.1 °C	16 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
27 Jan	32.9 °C	16 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
28 Jan	33.3 °C	15 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
29 Jan	33.3 °C	12 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
30 Jan	33.1 °C	14 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
31 Jan	34.2 °C	13 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
1 Feb	35.3 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
2 Feb	36.2 °C	15 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
3 Feb	37.0 °C	16 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
4 Feb	37.9 °C	16 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
5 Feb	38.1 °C	12 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
6 Feb	38.0 °C	12 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
7 Feb	36.1 °C	11 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
8 Feb	35.7 °C	14 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
9 Feb	35.7 °C	14 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
10 Feb	35.2 °C	12 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
11 Feb	35.6 °C	11 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
12 Feb	35.6 °C	9 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
13 Feb	37.0 °C	10 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
14 Feb	36.8 °C	9 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
15 Feb	37.3 °C	9 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
16 Feb	38.5 °C	13 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
17 Feb	39.3 °C	16 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
18 Feb	36.7 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
19 Feb	37.6 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
20 Feb	38.5 °C	23 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
21 Feb	37.6 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
22 Feb	38.5 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
23 Feb	37.3 °C	22 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
24 Feb	37.6 °C	20 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
25 Feb after	38.4 °C	26 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
26 Feb after	39.8 °C	9 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
27 Feb after	39.6 °C	11 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
28 Feb after	36.6 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
29 Feb after	39.2 °C	20 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
1 Mar after	37.6 °C	30 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
2 Mar after	38.0 °C	31 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
3 Mar after	36.2 °C	36 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
4 Mar after	36.8 °C	42 %	41 km/h	3.3 mm	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Jan 2016

After · 2 Mar 2016

Before After

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 · 631Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Central African Republic ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mala fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 January 2016 to 24 February 2016 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 February 2016 to 17 February 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,907 hectares (69.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Mala (6,951 ha, 3.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned