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Rafaï fire, 9 January 2019 Rafaï

Out · last detection 27 Jan 2019, 11:12 UTC

The fire started on 9 January 2019 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 61,568 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 3 in Central African Republic in 2019, of 64.

Burnt area
61,568ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
9 Jan 2019 – 27 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
9 Jan
2019
Heat detections
1,892
in a single hotspot: 281 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
22.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Jan27 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161718192021222324252627

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
36km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 61,198 ha in 2016, 11,430 ha in 2017, 2,264 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 52,568 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rafaï where it started
    62,019 ha reached on 10 Jan
    2.2 %

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)
9 Jan 34.9 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Jan 35.3 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Jan 37.0 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jan 36.8 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Jan 36.1 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Jan 34.0 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
15 Jan 34.4 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Jan 34.6 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Jan 35.8 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Jan 35.8 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Jan 36.3 °C 13 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Jan 36.6 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jan 36.7 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Jan 36.9 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Jan 36.4 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Jan 37.3 °C 15 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Jan 36.3 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Jan 35.8 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jan 35.3 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jan after 34.4 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Jan after 35.7 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Jan after 35.2 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jan after 37.5 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Feb after 38.3 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Feb after 38.1 °C 16 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Feb after 36.8 °C 19 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Feb after 37.3 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Feb after 36.8 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Jan 2019
After · 3 Feb 2019

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 · 1,892Every 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 9 January 2019 to 27 January 2019 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 January 2019 to 26 January 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 61,568 hectares (615.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rafaï (62,019 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.