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Ouadda fire, 23 January 2026 Ouadda, Dar El Kouti

Out · last detection 11 Feb 2026, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2026 in Ouadda, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,023 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 64th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 17 in Central African Republic in 2026, of 147.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ouadda · 2025Ouadda · 2023Ouadda · 2026Ouadda · 2020

Burnt area
21,023ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
23 Jan 2026 – 11 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
23 Jan
2026
Heat detections
463
in a single hotspot: 81 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
276MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan11 Feb
11 Feb 2026

How it evolved, day by day

23 Jan 2026 · 291 MW · 32 25 Jan 2026 · 131 MW · 9 26 Jan 2026 · 2 MW · 1 29 Jan 2026 · 161 MW · 16 30 Jan 2026 · 66 MW · 12 2 Feb 2026 · 209 MW · 25 3 Feb 2026 · 509 MW · 31 4 Feb 2026 · 1,225 MW · 110 5 Feb 2026 · 1,117 MW · 160 6 Feb 2026 · 56 MW · 4 7 Feb 2026 · 61 MW · 10 8 Feb 2026 · 175 MW · 34 9 Feb 2026 · 56 MW · 6 10 Feb 2026 · 58 MW · 10 11 Feb 2026 · 19 MW · 3
23 Jan 29 Jan 3 Feb 4 Feb 6 Feb 9 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
43km/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

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,167 ha in 2016, 2,289 ha in 2017, 2,773 ha in 2019, 1,674 ha in 2020, 2,548 ha in 2021, 469 ha in 2022, 6,242 ha in 2023, 2,569 ha in 2024, 8,094 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,492 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (210 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Ouadda where it started
    19,869 ha reached on 23 Jan
    0.9 %
  2. Dar El Kouti
    1,303 ha reached on 23 Jan
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
23 Jan 36.2 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Jan 36.1 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Jan 38.7 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Jan 39.1 °C 7 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
27 Jan 38.4 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
28 Jan 36.2 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Jan 36.9 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Jan 37.3 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
31 Jan 36.9 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Feb 36.4 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Feb 37.0 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Feb 37.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
4 Feb 38.2 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
5 Feb 38.7 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Feb 34.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Feb 36.7 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Feb 37.5 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Feb 36.5 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Feb 36.3 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Feb 36.0 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Feb after 36.5 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Feb after 36.3 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Feb after 35.5 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Feb after 37.8 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Feb after 37.8 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Feb after 37.4 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Feb after 36.3 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Feb after 35.9 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Feb after 36.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Feb after 38.6 °C 9 % 35 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 · 16 Jan 2026
After · 18 Feb 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 7 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 113 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 73: 4.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak113 µg/m³
Days over the guideline19 days
PM10122 µg/m³
Optical depth1.14
27282930311234567891011121314
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 463Every 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 23 January 2026 to 11 February 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 January 2026 to 11 February 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 21,023 hectares (210.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ouadda (19,869 ha, 0.9 %); Dar El Kouti (1,303 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 29 January 2026 → 23 January 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 30 January 2026 to 11 February 2026. 463 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.