How long did the Rafaï fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 January 2019 to 27 January 2019 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 January 2019 to 23 January 2019.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,117 hectares (61.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Rafaï (6,161 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 35 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.

CF · Central African Republic · 2019-01-13 → 2019-01-27

Rafaï fire, 13 January 2019 Rafaï

Out · last detection 24 Jan 2019, 12:09 UTC

The fire started on 13 January 2019 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,117 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 63th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 43 in Central African Republic in 2019, of 64.

Burnt area: 6,117ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 15days; 13 Jan 2019 – 27 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit: 1; sub-prefectures
Started on: 13 Jan; 2019
Heat detections: 159; in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start: 42; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 1.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Jan 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jan27 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

35km/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

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,575 ha in 2016, 4,779 ha in 2017, 2,625 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,299 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Rafaï where it started

6,161 ha reached on 13 Jan

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)
13 Jan	36.5 °C	21 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
14 Jan	34.9 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 38
15 Jan	34.8 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
16 Jan	34.8 °C	31 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
17 Jan	36.3 °C	16 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
18 Jan	36.3 °C	14 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
19 Jan	36.7 °C	14 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
20 Jan	36.9 °C	12 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
21 Jan	37.2 °C	10 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
22 Jan	37.3 °C	11 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
23 Jan	36.8 °C	13 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
24 Jan	38.0 °C	15 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
25 Jan	36.8 °C	23 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
26 Jan	36.8 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
27 Jan	36.4 °C	27 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
28 Jan after	35.1 °C	34 %	30 km/h	0.3 mm	High 37
29 Jan after	35.9 °C	29 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Jan after	35.1 °C	29 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
31 Jan after	37.5 °C	18 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
1 Feb after	38.2 °C	15 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
2 Feb after	37.7 °C	18 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
3 Feb after	37.1 °C	20 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
4 Feb after	37.2 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
5 Feb after	37.3 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
6 Feb after	35.3 °C	30 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Jan 2019

After · 3 Feb 2019

Before After

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 · 159Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

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 13 January 2019 to 27 January 2019 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 January 2019 to 23 January 2019.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,117 hectares (61.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Rafaï (6,161 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 35 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned