How long did the Ouadda fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 December 2017 to 21 January 2018 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 January 2018 to 14 January 2018.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,001 hectares (70.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Ouadda (7,057 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 40 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.

CF · Central African Republic · 2017-12-31 → 2018-01-21

Ouadda fire, 31 December 2017 Ouadda

Out · last detection 21 Jan 2018, 12:09 UTC

The fire started on 31 December 2017 in Ouadda, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,001 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 223th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 52 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 100.

Burnt area: 7,001ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 22days; 31 Dec 2017 – 21 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; sub-prefectures
Started on: 31 Dec; 2017
Heat detections: 222; in a single hotspot: 274 MW
Danger at start: 46; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 3.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 21 Jan 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Dec21 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

31234567891012131415162021

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

40km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,749 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

Ouadda where it started

7,057 ha reached on 31 Dec

0.3 %

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	Danger (FWI)
31 Dec	32.8 °C	16 %	31 km/h	Very high 46
1 Jan	31.4 °C	16 %	40 km/h	Very high 47
2 Jan	30.2 °C	12 %	34 km/h	Very high 47
3 Jan	30.2 °C	10 %	35 km/h	Very high 46
4 Jan	30.3 °C	11 %	35 km/h	Very high 46
5 Jan	30.4 °C	11 %	34 km/h	Very high 48
6 Jan	30.8 °C	13 %	29 km/h	Very high 45
7 Jan	31.6 °C	13 %	32 km/h	Very high 47
8 Jan	31.9 °C	14 %	32 km/h	Very high 47
9 Jan	31.4 °C	14 %	34 km/h	Very high 49
10 Jan	32.6 °C	13 %	32 km/h	Very high 48
11 Jan	33.1 °C	13 %	30 km/h	Very high 48
12 Jan	33.3 °C	13 %	35 km/h	Very high 49
13 Jan	34.5 °C	12 %	32 km/h	Very high 48
14 Jan	34.8 °C	12 %	34 km/h	Very high 50
15 Jan	33.5 °C	13 %	34 km/h	Extreme 52
16 Jan	32.9 °C	10 %	34 km/h	Extreme 52
17 Jan	32.9 °C	8 %	36 km/h	Extreme 52
18 Jan	32.4 °C	10 %	32 km/h	Extreme 50
19 Jan	32.7 °C	11 %	31 km/h	Extreme 50
20 Jan	32.8 °C	12 %	33 km/h	Extreme 53
21 Jan	33.7 °C	12 %	28 km/h	Extreme 52
22 Jan after	34.9 °C	12 %	32 km/h	Extreme 53
23 Jan after	33.9 °C	11 %	40 km/h	Extreme 56
24 Jan after	33.7 °C	10 %	30 km/h	Extreme 52
25 Jan after	34.3 °C	11 %	31 km/h	Extreme 54
26 Jan after	32.9 °C	13 %	31 km/h	Extreme 53
27 Jan after	33.4 °C	14 %	41 km/h	Extreme 57
28 Jan after	32.8 °C	11 %	40 km/h	Extreme 56
29 Jan after	32.9 °C	11 %	37 km/h	Extreme 56
30 Jan after	32.9 °C	10 %	40 km/h	Extreme 58
31 Jan after	32.5 °C	12 %	40 km/h	Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Dec 2017

After · 28 Jan 2018

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 · 222Every 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 Ouadda fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 December 2017 to 21 January 2018 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 January 2018 to 14 January 2018.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,001 hectares (70.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Ouadda (7,057 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 40 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

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