Rafaï fire, 28 February 2023 Rafaï, Yalinga
The fire started on 28 February 2023 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,776 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 55th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 27 in Central African Republic in 2023, of 53.
- Burnt area
- 6,776ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 28 Feb 2023 – 8 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 28 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 194
- in a single hotspot: 89 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- sum of detected power
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 9 Mar.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,605 ha in 2016, 3,781 ha in 2017, 251 ha in 2018, 97 ha in 2019, 8,519 ha in 2020, 180 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,747 ha that had burned before.
- 5,765 ha Yalinga fire, December 2020 979,715 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,300 ha Rafaï fire, January 2016 125,550 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,762 ha Yalinga fire, January 2017 238,204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,836 ha Yalinga fire, January 2020 234,858 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 918 ha Rafaï fire, January 2020 131,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 97 ha Yalinga fire, December 2018 267,715 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Rafaï where it started5,822 ha reached on 28 Feb0.2 %
-
1,004 ha reached on 28 Feb0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Feb | 37.2 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Mar | 35.4 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Mar | 34.6 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Mar | 35.5 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 4 Mar | 37.9 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 5 Mar | 39.7 °C | 6 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 6 Mar | 39.0 °C | 12 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 7 Mar | 38.7 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Mar | 36.7 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Mar after | 35.9 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 2.1 mm | High 30 |
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 · 194Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
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 February 2023 to 8 March 2023 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 March 2023 to 6 March 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,776 hectares (67.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rafaï (5,822 ha, 0.2 %); Yalinga (1,004 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 38 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
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
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.