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Obo fire, 4 January 2016 Obo

Out · last detection 17 Jan 2016, 11:51 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2016 in Obo, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,675 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 143th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 73 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Burnt area
8,675ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
4 Jan 2016 – 17 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
4 Jan
2016
Heat detections
279
in a single hotspot: 91 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan17 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

4567891011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
43km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 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. Obo where it started
    8,737 ha reached on 4 Jan
    1.6 %

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)
4 Jan 35.5 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jan 35.6 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Jan 36.0 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Jan 37.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Jan 37.8 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Jan 37.4 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jan 36.2 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Jan 36.2 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jan 36.3 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Jan 36.2 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jan 36.3 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Jan 35.4 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Jan 36.4 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Jan 37.6 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jan after 36.9 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Jan after 36.8 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Jan after 36.3 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Jan after 36.8 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
22 Jan after 37.9 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Jan after 36.7 °C 10 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Jan after 36.2 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Jan after 34.7 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Jan after 34.4 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
27 Jan after 32.7 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Dec 2015
After · 24 Jan 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 · 279Every 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 Obo fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 January 2016 to 17 January 2016 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 January 2016 to 10 January 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,675 hectares (86.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Obo (8,737 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.