Rafaï fire, 4 January 2020 Rafaï
The fire started on 4 January 2020 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 47,576 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 9 in Central African Republic in 2020, of 103.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Yalinga · 2017Rafaï · 2016Rafaï · 2018Rafaï · 2018
- Burnt area
- 47,576ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 32days
- 4 Jan 2020 – 4 Feb 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 4 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 1,774
- in a single hotspot: 132 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 355MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 33,310 ha in 2016, 32,655 ha in 2017, 18,273 ha in 2018, 9,639 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 45,344 ha that had burned before.
- 30,085 ha Yalinga fire, January 2017 238,204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 24,053 ha Rafaï fire, January 2016 58,216 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 17,001 ha Rafaï fire, December 2018 80,563 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,363 ha Rafaï fire, December 2018 80,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 169 ha Yalinga fire, December 2018 267,715 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 114 ha Yalinga fire, January 2016 5,516 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 50 ha Rafaï fire, January 2017 28,760 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Rafaï where it started47,956 ha reached on 4 Jan1.7 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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 | 34.2 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 5 Jan | 33.4 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Jan | 34.3 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Jan | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Jan | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Jan | 35.6 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Jan | 35.9 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 11 Jan | 34.3 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 12 Jan | 32.8 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 13 Jan | 33.9 °C | 9 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Jan | 35.7 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Jan | 37.6 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Jan | 38.3 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Jan | 37.7 °C | 12 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Jan | 35.5 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Jan | 34.7 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 20 Jan | 34.9 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 21 Jan | 34.6 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 22 Jan | 33.9 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 23 Jan | 32.9 °C | 10 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 24 Jan | 32.8 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 25 Jan | 33.7 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 26 Jan | 34.2 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 27 Jan | 35.5 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 28 Jan | 36.6 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 29 Jan | 36.3 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 30 Jan | 36.6 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 31 Jan | 35.1 °C | 10 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 1 Feb | 35.0 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Feb | 35.6 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 3 Feb | 36.7 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 4 Feb | 36.9 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 5 Feb after | 35.6 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Feb after | 34.9 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 12 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 8 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 10 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 9 Feb after | 37.2 °C | 10 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 10 Feb after | 36.7 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 11 Feb after | 35.7 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 12 Feb after | 34.5 °C | 11 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 13 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 14 Feb after | 37.4 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 1,774Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 234,858 haYalinga4 January 2020 · 50 days · 16 km away
- 80,563 haRafaï10 December 2018 · 45 days · 20 km away
- 238,204 haYalinga17 January 2017 · 22 days · 24 km away
- 125,550 haRafaï2 January 2016 · 31 days · 27 km away
- 307,099 haDjema9 January 2020 · 39 days · 37 km away
- 207,292 haYalinga17 January 2021 · 37 days · 40 km away
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 2020 to 4 February 2020 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 January 2020 to 28 January 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 47,576 hectares (475.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Rafaï (47,956 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, class Extreme.
- 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
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 January 2020 to 28 January 2020. 1,774 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.