How long did the Rafaï fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 November 2019 to 17 December 2019 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 December 2019 to 10 December 2019.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,153 hectares (61.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Rafaï (6,196 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class 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 · 2019-11-30 → 2019-12-17

Rafaï fire, 30 November 2019 Rafaï

Out · last detection 17 Dec 2019, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 30 November 2019 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,153 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 62th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 42 in Central African Republic in 2019, of 64.

Burnt area: 6,153ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 18days; 30 Nov 2019 – 17 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit: 1; sub-prefectures
Started on: 30 Nov; 2019
Heat detections: 290; in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start: 16; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 2.8GW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Dec 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Nov17 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

3012345678910121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

32km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 141 ha in 2016, 2,576 ha in 2017, 2,630 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,096 ha that had burned before.

1,748 ha Rafaï fire, December 2018 5,030 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Rafaï where it started

6,196 ha reached on 30 Nov

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)
30 Nov	34.4 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
1 Dec	33.6 °C	28 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
2 Dec	33.0 °C	34 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
3 Dec	30.9 °C	48 %	23 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 13
4 Dec	32.7 °C	32 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
5 Dec	33.5 °C	23 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
6 Dec	33.9 °C	21 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
7 Dec	34.2 °C	24 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
8 Dec	33.3 °C	23 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
9 Dec	33.6 °C	23 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
10 Dec	33.4 °C	24 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
11 Dec	30.8 °C	45 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
12 Dec	33.2 °C	38 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
13 Dec	32.1 °C	44 %	27 km/h	9.4 mm	Very low 2
14 Dec	32.5 °C	45 %	26 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 8
15 Dec	31.6 °C	48 %	29 km/h	3.5 mm	Very low 2
16 Dec	31.7 °C	45 %	25 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 9
17 Dec	33.9 °C	23 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
18 Dec after	34.0 °C	20 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
19 Dec after	34.4 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
20 Dec after	34.2 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
21 Dec after	34.8 °C	24 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
22 Dec after	34.8 °C	23 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
23 Dec after	35.3 °C	21 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
24 Dec after	35.6 °C	22 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
25 Dec after	36.0 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
26 Dec after	35.2 °C	15 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
27 Dec after	35.5 °C	13 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 Nov 2019

After · 24 Dec 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 · 290Every 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 30 November 2019 to 17 December 2019 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 December 2019 to 10 December 2019.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,153 hectares (61.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Rafaï (6,196 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class 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