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Rafaï fire, 30 November 2022 Rafaï

Out · last detection 8 Dec 2022, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 30 November 2022 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,351 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 27th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 29 in Central African Republic in 2022, of 98.

Burnt area
12,351ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
30 Nov 2022 – 7 Dec 2022
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
30 Nov
2022
Heat detections
639
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
5.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Dec 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Nov7 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

301345678

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
37km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,272 ha in 2016, 6,503 ha in 2017, 6,425 ha in 2018, 3,391 ha in 2019, 9,447 ha in 2020, 8,106 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,228 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rafaï where it started
    12,446 ha reached on 30 Nov
    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)
30 Nov 32.1 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 18
1 Dec 32.5 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Dec 33.5 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Dec 35.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Dec 35.8 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Dec 34.5 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Dec 33.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Dec 34.5 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Dec after 33.5 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Dec after 33.8 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Dec after 34.0 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Dec after 34.2 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Dec after 35.3 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Dec after 31.9 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Dec after 32.7 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Dec after 33.9 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Dec after 35.0 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Dec after 35.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Nov 2022
After · 14 Dec 2022

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 · 639Every 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 30 November 2022 to 7 December 2022 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 December 2022 to 7 December 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,351 hectares (123.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rafaï (12,446 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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

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.