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Ouandja Kotto fire, 16 December 2017 Ouandja Kotto, Ouadda

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2018, 23:55 UTC

The fire started on 16 December 2017 in Ouandja Kotto, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,703 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 56th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 373 with a page). Number 13 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 97.

Compare with…

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Burnt area
27,703ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
16 Dec 2017 – 13 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
16 Dec
2017
Heat detections
2,075
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
439MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Dec13 Jan
13 Jan 2018

How it evolved, day by day

16 Dec 2017 · 25 MW · 7 17 Dec 2017 · 21 MW · 7 18 Dec 2017 · 20 MW · 4 19 Dec 2017 · 98 MW · 20 20 Dec 2017 · 19 MW · 2 21 Dec 2017 · 14 MW · 5 22 Dec 2017 · 112 MW · 14 23 Dec 2017 · 7 MW · 6 24 Dec 2017 · 208 MW · 15 25 Dec 2017 · 15 MW · 1 26 Dec 2017 · 209 MW · 15 27 Dec 2017 · 329 MW · 46 28 Dec 2017 · 689 MW · 60 29 Dec 2017 · 344 MW · 48 30 Dec 2017 · 627 MW · 54 31 Dec 2017 · 685 MW · 60 1 Jan 2018 · 1,977 MW · 335 2 Jan 2018 · 1,942 MW · 401 3 Jan 2018 · 1,207 MW · 443 4 Jan 2018 · 366 MW · 118 5 Jan 2018 · 1,801 MW · 185 6 Jan 2018 · 1,568 MW · 137 7 Jan 2018 · 215 MW · 42 8 Jan 2018 · 27 MW · 22 9 Jan 2018 · 33 MW · 4 10 Jan 2018 · 55 MW · 7 11 Jan 2018 · 82 MW · 6 12 Jan 2018 · 2 MW · 1 13 Jan 2018 · 46 MW · 10
16 Dec 21 Dec 26 Dec 31 Dec 1 Jan 5 Jan 10 Jan

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
44km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,821 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,517 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 17% of the area of London (277 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. Ouandja Kotto where it started
    27,847 ha reached on 16 Dec
    4.6 %
  2. Ouadda
    2 ha reached on 3 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 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)
16 Dec 34.6 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Dec 34.2 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Dec 34.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Dec 35.5 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Dec 35.7 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Dec 35.8 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Dec 35.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec 36.8 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Dec 35.7 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Dec 34.1 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Dec 33.9 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Dec 34.3 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Dec 35.6 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Dec 35.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Dec 35.6 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Dec 33.1 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Jan 31.9 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Jan 30.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Jan 31.0 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Jan 31.4 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Jan 31.0 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Jan 31.5 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jan 32.0 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Jan 32.3 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Jan 32.0 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Jan 32.7 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Jan 33.6 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Jan 34.1 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Jan 35.4 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Jan after 35.4 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Jan after 33.9 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Jan after 33.5 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Jan after 33.5 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Jan after 33.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Jan after 33.6 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Jan after 33.4 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Jan after 34.4 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Jan after 35.6 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Jan after 34.6 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Dec 2017
After · 20 Jan 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 · 2,075Every 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 Ouandja Kotto fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 December 2017 to 13 January 2018 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 December 2017 to 7 January 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 27,703 hectares (277.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ouandja Kotto (27,847 ha, 4.6 %); Ouadda (2 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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: 17 December 2017 → 16 December 2017.

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 December 2017 to 7 January 2018. 2,075 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 2015, 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.