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Rafaï fire, 4 January 2019 Rafaï

Out · last detection 16 Jan 2019, 23:56 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2019 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,790 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 30th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 15 in Central African Republic in 2019, of 64.

Burnt area
11,790ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
4 Jan 2019 – 16 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
4 Jan
2019
Heat detections
429
in a single hotspot: 64 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan16 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

45678910111213141516

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
40km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,813 ha in 2016, 9,285 ha in 2017, 2,078 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,173 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rafaï where it started
    11,877 ha reached on 4 Jan
    0.4 %

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)
4 Jan 36.9 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Jan 36.9 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jan 34.8 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Jan 35.3 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Jan 35.4 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Jan 35.1 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Jan 35.6 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Jan 37.2 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Jan 37.1 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Jan 36.7 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Jan 34.4 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
15 Jan 34.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Jan 34.7 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Jan after 36.2 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Jan after 36.2 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Jan after 36.7 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Jan after 36.8 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Jan after 37.1 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Jan after 37.1 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Jan after 36.7 °C 12 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jan after 38.0 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Jan after 36.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Jan after 36.6 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Dec 2018
After · 23 Jan 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 · 429Every 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 4 January 2019 to 16 January 2019 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 January 2019 to 13 January 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,790 hectares (117.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rafaï (11,877 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 40 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.