Obo fire, January 2025 Obo
The fire started on 23 January 2025 in Obo, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,367 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 112th largest in Haut-Mbomou since 2016 (of 298 with a page). Number 51 in Central African Republic in 2025, of 145.
- Burnt area
- 11,367ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 23 Jan 2025 – 7 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 23 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 491
- in a single hotspot: 88 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.6GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,744 ha in 2016, 677 ha in 2017, 3,113 ha in 2018, 1,236 ha in 2019, 1,214 ha in 2020, 5,133 ha in 2021, 2,522 ha in 2022, 4,087 ha in 2023, 4,285 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,510 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Obo where it started11,447 ha reached on 23 Jan2.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan | 36.5 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 24 Jan | 35.8 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Jan | 35.4 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 26 Jan | 35.6 °C | 9 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Jan | 35.5 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Jan | 35.1 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 29 Jan | 34.9 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Jan | 35.1 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 31 Jan | 35.1 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 1 Feb | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 2 Feb | 37.4 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 3 Feb | 37.6 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 4 Feb | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 5 Feb | 38.0 °C | 14 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Feb | 37.8 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 7 Feb | 38.4 °C | 10 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 8 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 9 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 10 Feb after | 38.1 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 11 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 12 Feb after | 37.0 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 13 Feb after | 37.6 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Feb after | 36.6 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 16 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 25 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 3.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 491Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,050 haDjema21 December 2018 · 22 days · 25 km away
- 34,318 haDjema6 January 2021 · 25 days · 27 km away
- 28,424 haTambura22 January 2022 · 14 days · 30 km away
- 24,627 haTambura5 January 2025 · 16 days · 32 km away
- 16,421 haDjema4 January 2020 · 19 days · 32 km away
- 13,295 haTambura22 December 2018 · 14 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Obo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2025 and 7 February 2025: 16 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,367 hectares (113.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Obo (11,447 ha, 2.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.
Report an error
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.