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Ouadda fire, 19 January 2018 Ouadda, Samba-Boungou

Out · last detection 28 Jan 2018, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 19 January 2018 in Ouadda, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,827 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 231th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 55 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Burnt area
6,827ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
19 Jan 2018 – 28 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
19 Jan
2018
Heat detections
253
in a single hotspot: 117 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jan28 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
39km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 600 ha in 2016, 1,318 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Ouadda where it started
    6,385 ha reached on 19 Jan
    0.3 %
  2. Samba-Boungou
    487 ha reached on 19 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
19 Jan 34.7 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jan 34.6 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jan 34.6 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan 36.0 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Jan 35.9 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Jan 34.7 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Jan 34.7 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Jan 34.7 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Jan 35.3 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Jan 35.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Jan after 35.1 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Jan after 35.1 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Jan after 34.9 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Feb after 35.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Feb after 36.8 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Feb after 37.1 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Feb after 37.0 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Feb after 38.4 °C 7 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Feb after 38.5 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Feb after 39.8 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jan 2018
After · 4 Feb 2018

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 · 253Every 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 19 January 2018 to 28 January 2018 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 January 2018 to 26 January 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,827 hectares (68.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ouadda (6,385 ha, 0.3 %); Samba-Boungou (487 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.