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Rafaï fire, 11 December 2018 Rafaï

Out · last detection 24 Dec 2018, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 11 December 2018 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,030 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 79th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 79 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Burnt area
5,030ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
11 Dec 2018 – 23 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
11 Dec
2018
Heat detections
200
in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Dec23 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1113141516181921222324

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
37km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 505 ha in 2016, 1,010 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Rafaï where it started
    5,064 ha reached on 11 Dec
    0.2 %

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)
11 Dec 34.0 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Dec 34.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Dec 35.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Dec 35.8 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Dec 36.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Dec 35.0 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Dec 35.3 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Dec 35.1 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Dec 35.5 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Dec 35.3 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Dec 35.2 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Dec 35.0 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Dec 35.0 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Dec after 35.1 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Dec after 36.1 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Dec after 37.2 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Dec after 37.1 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Dec after 35.0 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Dec after 36.2 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Dec after 36.7 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Dec after 35.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Jan after 36.3 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Jan after 36.9 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Dec 2018
After · 30 Dec 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 · 200Every 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 11 December 2018 to 23 December 2018 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 December 2018 to 16 December 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,030 hectares (50.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rafaï (5,064 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.