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Ouadda fire, 8 February 2017 Ouadda

Out · last detection 23 Feb 2017, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 8 February 2017 in Ouadda, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,040 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 367th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 98 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 100.

Burnt area
5,040ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
8 Feb 2017 – 23 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
8 Feb
2017
Heat detections
185
in a single hotspot: 79 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Feb23 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314151617181920212223

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
41km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,180 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Ouadda where it started
    5,074 ha reached on 8 Feb
    0.2 %

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)
8 Feb 38.1 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Feb 37.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Feb 38.2 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Feb 37.8 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Feb 38.3 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Feb 36.5 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Feb 34.6 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Feb 35.6 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
16 Feb 35.7 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Feb 33.4 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Feb 34.0 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Feb 35.4 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Feb 36.5 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Feb 35.7 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Feb 36.2 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Feb 36.2 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
24 Feb after 36.1 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
25 Feb after 36.0 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
26 Feb after 36.0 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Feb after 36.7 °C 8 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Feb after 37.8 °C 8 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Mar after 37.4 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Mar after 36.4 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Mar after 37.2 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Mar after 37.5 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Mar after 37.9 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Feb 2017
After · 2 Mar 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 · 185Every 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 Ouadda fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 February 2017 to 23 February 2017 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 February 2017 to 17 February 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,040 hectares (50.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ouadda (5,074 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 41 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.

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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.