Skip to content
worldfires
CF · Central African Republic · →

Rafaï fire, 16 January 2018 Rafaï

Out · last detection 28 Jan 2018, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 16 January 2018 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,576 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 24th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 24 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Burnt area
13,576ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
16 Jan 2018 – 28 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
16 Jan
2018
Heat detections
461
in a single hotspot: 92 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jan28 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324252628

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
42km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,558 ha in 2016, 3,521 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Rafaï where it started
    13,685 ha reached on 16 Jan
    0.5 %

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)
16 Jan 34.5 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Jan 34.8 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Jan 34.9 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jan 34.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jan 35.1 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Jan 35.3 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan 36.2 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Jan 35.5 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Jan 34.4 °C 10 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Jan 34.3 °C 15 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Jan 34.0 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Jan 35.1 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Jan 35.3 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
29 Jan after 35.2 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Jan after 35.0 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
31 Jan after 34.7 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
1 Feb after 35.4 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
2 Feb after 36.3 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
3 Feb after 36.7 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
4 Feb after 36.8 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Feb after 37.8 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Feb after 38.8 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
7 Feb after 39.4 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jan 2018
After · 4 Feb 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 · 461Every 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 16 January 2018 to 28 January 2018 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 January 2018 to 25 January 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,576 hectares (135.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rafaï (13,685 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.