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Rafaï fire, 15 December 2016 Rafaï

Out · last detection 26 Dec 2016, 23:37 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2016 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,087 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 46th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 80 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Burnt area
8,087ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
15 Dec 2016 – 26 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
15 Dec
2016
Heat detections
230
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
912MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec26 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223242526

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
45km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Rafaï where it started
    8,148 ha reached on 15 Dec
    0.3 %

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 31.3 °C 31 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Dec 33.5 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Dec 34.7 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Dec 34.5 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Dec 34.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Dec 35.1 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Dec 35.6 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Dec 35.7 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Dec 36.6 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Dec 36.9 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Dec 36.3 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Dec 35.1 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Dec after 35.8 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec after 34.8 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Dec after 34.8 °C 15 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Dec after 35.6 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Dec after 36.2 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan after 36.2 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Jan after 34.3 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Jan after 34.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Jan after 36.2 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Jan after 35.7 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2016
After · 2 Jan 2017

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 · 230Every 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 Rafaï fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 December 2016 to 26 December 2016 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 December 2016 to 26 December 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,087 hectares (80.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rafaï (8,148 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
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.