Ouadda fire, 11 February 2026 Ouadda, Dar El Kouti
The fire started on 11 February 2026 in Ouadda, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 43,149 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 38th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 373 with a page). Number 10 in Central African Republic in 2026, of 164.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 43,149ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 27days
- 11 Feb 2026 – 9 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 11 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,167
- in a single hotspot: 117 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 422MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 18 Mar.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,401 ha in 2016, 12,825 ha in 2017, 4,952 ha in 2019, 14,285 ha in 2020, 10,537 ha in 2021, 11,632 ha in 2022, 13,893 ha in 2023, 4,955 ha in 2024, 13,435 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 38,050 ha that had burned before.
- 4,200 ha Ouadda fire, February 2023 6,072 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,135 ha Dar El Kouti fire, January 2016 12,385 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,790 ha Ouadda fire, February 2020 9,416 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,515 ha Ouadda fire, February 2020 14,865 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,481 ha Dar El Kouti fire, January 2017 14,119 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 246 ha Dar El Kouti fire, February 2025 5,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 204 ha Ouadda fire, January 2025 6,575 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Ouadda where it started29,418 ha reached on 11 Feb1.3 %
-
14,014 ha reached on 11 Feb0.4 %
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 2025Inside 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Feb | 35.9 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 12 Feb | 36.5 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 13 Feb | 36.6 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 14 Feb | 35.6 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 15 Feb | 37.6 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Feb | 37.9 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 17 Feb | 37.7 °C | 16 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Feb | 36.4 °C | 13 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Feb | 35.8 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 20 Feb | 36.4 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 21 Feb | 38.3 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 22 Feb | 36.7 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 23 Feb | 36.0 °C | 7 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 24 Feb | 34.9 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 25 Feb | 35.3 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 26 Feb | 34.6 °C | 8 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 27 Feb | 35.4 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 28 Feb | 35.4 °C | 8 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 1 Mar | 35.3 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 2 Mar | 35.2 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 3 Mar | 35.3 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 4 Mar | 34.4 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 5 Mar | 35.0 °C | 8 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 6 Mar | 36.0 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 7 Mar | 37.6 °C | 9 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 8 Mar | 37.7 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 9 Mar | 37.5 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 10 Mar after | 37.2 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 11 Mar after | 36.1 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 12 Mar after | 36.7 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 13 Mar after | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 14 Mar after | 36.7 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 15 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Mar after | 35.5 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Mar after | 32.2 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 33 |
| 18 Mar after | 34.1 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 3.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 19 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 1,167Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,119 haDar El Kouti24 January 2017 · 18 days · 10 km away
- 21,023 haOuadda23 January 2026 · 20 days · 18 km away
- 14,865 haOuadda22 February 2020 · 12 days · 22 km away
- 15,823 haOuadda17 February 2026 · 19 days · 35 km away
- 40,174 haDar El KoutiFebruary 2021 · 22 days · 36 km away
- 17,352 haDar El Kouti1 January 2018 · 9 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ouadda fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 February 2026 to 9 March 2026 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 February 2026 to 9 March 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 43,149 hectares (431.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ouadda (29,418 ha, 1.3 %); Dar El Kouti (14,014 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 February 2026 to 9 March 2026. 1,167 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.
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.