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Ouadda fire, January 2023 Ouadda, Vokouma

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2023, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 3 January 2023 in Ouadda, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,194 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 266th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 34 in Central African Republic in 2023, of 53.

Burnt area
6,194ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
3 Jan 2023 – 19 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
3 Jan
2023
Heat detections
238
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jan 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jan19 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

367891011121314151617181920

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
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 747 ha in 2016, 1,242 ha in 2018, 100 ha in 2019, 35 ha in 2021, 18 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Ouadda where it started
    5,143 ha reached on 3 Jan
    0.2 %
  2. Vokouma
    1,100 ha reached on 10 Jan
    0.1 %

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)
3 Jan 34.0 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Jan 33.7 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Jan 34.0 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Jan 33.9 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Jan 33.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Jan 34.2 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jan 34.3 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Jan 33.5 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Jan 33.1 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Jan 32.8 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Jan 33.0 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Jan 33.8 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Jan 33.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Jan 33.8 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Jan 34.4 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jan 34.4 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan 35.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan after 35.7 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jan after 35.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Jan after 35.9 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Jan after 35.7 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Jan after 36.2 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Jan after 36.1 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Jan after 36.2 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jan after 37.0 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Jan after 36.3 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Jan after 36.7 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Dec 2022
After · 26 Jan 2023

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 · 238Every 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 3 January 2023 to 19 January 2023 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 January 2023 to 16 January 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,194 hectares (61.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ouadda (5,143 ha, 0.2 %); Vokouma (1,100 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 40 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

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.