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Rafaï fire, 28 January 2023 Rafaï

Out · last detection 26 Feb 2023, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 28 January 2023 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 62,728 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 3 in Central African Republic in 2023, of 53.

Burnt area
62,728ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
28 Jan 2023 – 26 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
28 Jan
2023
Heat detections
2,474
in a single hotspot: 224 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
23.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Feb 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jan26 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
44km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 43,751 ha in 2016, 50,686 ha in 2017, 6,493 ha in 2018, 12,659 ha in 2019, 36,830 ha in 2020, 13,334 ha in 2021, 820 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 60,826 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rafaï where it started
    63,188 ha reached on 28 Jan
    2.3 %

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 Jan 35.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Jan 36.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Feb 36.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Feb 36.0 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Feb 36.3 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Feb 37.5 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
5 Feb 38.4 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Feb 38.1 °C 7 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Feb 36.8 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Feb 36.9 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Feb 37.0 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Feb 37.5 °C 9 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Feb 38.6 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Feb 39.0 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
13 Feb 37.7 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Feb 37.7 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Feb 37.8 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
16 Feb 35.0 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
17 Feb 35.3 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Feb 35.5 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
19 Feb 37.3 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Feb 38.0 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Feb 38.3 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 Feb 38.4 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Feb 35.2 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Feb 37.2 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Feb 36.5 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Feb 36.8 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 46
27 Feb after 35.7 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Feb after 37.3 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Mar after 35.4 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Mar after 34.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Mar after 35.3 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Mar after 38.2 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Mar after 39.9 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Mar after 39.1 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jan 2023
After · 5 Mar 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 6 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 152 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 63: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak152 µg/m³
Days over the guideline30 days
PM10218 µg/m³
Optical depth1.02
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Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 2,474Every 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 28 January 2023 to 26 February 2023 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 January 2023 to 24 February 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 62,728 hectares (627.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Rafaï (63,188 ha, 2.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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

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.