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Ouadda fire, 15 December 2018 Ouadda

Out · last detection 29 Dec 2018, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2018 in Ouadda, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,307 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 339th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 69 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Burnt area
5,307ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
15 Dec 2018 – 29 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
15 Dec
2018
Heat detections
180
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec29 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324252629

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
41km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,959 ha in 2016, 87 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,116 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ouadda where it started
    5,348 ha reached on 15 Dec
    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)
15 Dec 34.3 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Dec 35.3 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Dec 34.7 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Dec 32.2 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Dec 33.1 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Dec 32.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Dec 32.6 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Dec 32.2 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec 32.1 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Dec 32.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Dec 33.2 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Dec 34.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Dec 34.7 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 34.1 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Dec 34.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Dec after 33.8 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Dec after 33.6 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Jan after 34.2 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Jan after 35.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Jan after 34.3 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Jan after 35.3 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Jan after 35.7 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Jan after 35.0 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Jan after 33.3 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Jan after 33.8 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2018
After · 5 Jan 2019

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 · 180Every 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 15 December 2018 to 29 December 2018 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 December 2018 to 26 December 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,307 hectares (53.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ouadda (5,348 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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

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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.