Rafaï fire, 4 December 2024 Rafaï
The fire started on 4 December 2024 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,042 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 77th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 90 in Central African Republic in 2024, of 91.
- Burnt area
- 5,042ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 4 Dec 2024 – 17 Dec 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 4 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 159
- in a single hotspot: 94 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 30 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: 3,618 ha in 2016, 4,816 ha in 2017, 15 ha in 2018, 618 ha in 2019, 2,323 ha in 2020, 787 ha in 2022, 2,852 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,998 ha that had burned before.
- 3,618 ha Rafaï fire, January 2016 40,527 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,941 ha Rafaï fire, January 2017 44,055 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,852 ha Rafaï fire, January 2023 62,728 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,163 ha Yalinga fire, December 2020 979,715 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 618 ha Rafaï fire, January 2019 11,790 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 385 ha Rafaï fire, January 2020 131,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Rafaï where it started5,079 ha reached on 4 Dec0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Dec | 34.8 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 5 Dec | 34.6 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Dec | 33.6 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Dec | 34.8 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Dec | 36.1 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Dec | 36.0 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Dec | 36.2 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 11 Dec | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Dec | 34.7 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Dec | 35.0 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Dec | 34.8 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Dec | 35.1 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Dec | 35.6 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Dec | 36.3 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Dec after | 34.9 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Dec after | 34.2 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Dec after | 35.3 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Dec after | 34.9 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Dec after | 35.5 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Dec after | 36.3 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Dec after | 35.5 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Dec after | 35.4 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Dec after | 36.0 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Dec after | 36.2 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 17 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 52 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 159Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 62,728 haRafaï28 January 2023 · 30 days · 3 km away
- 92,402 haRafaï28 December 2016 · 35 days · 24 km away
- 131,336 haRafaï4 January 2020 · 38 days · 30 km away
- 125,550 haRafaï2 January 2016 · 31 days · 33 km away
- 58,216 haRafaï3 January 2016 · 22 days · 34 km away
- 80,071 haRafaï18 December 2018 · 39 days · 38 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 December 2024 to 17 December 2024 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 December 2024 to 16 December 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,042 hectares (50.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Rafaï (5,079 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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.
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.