Rafaï fire, 31 December 2025 Rafaï, Yalinga
The fire started on 31 December 2025 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,739 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 57th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 98 in Central African Republic in 2025, of 145.
- Burnt area
- 6,739ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 31 Dec 2025 – 11 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 31 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 145
- in a single hotspot: 164 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,975 ha in 2016, 5,041 ha in 2017, 927 ha in 2019, 8,600 ha in 2020, 472 ha in 2021, 3,727 ha in 2022, 2,066 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,746 ha that had burned before.
- 4,911 ha Yalinga fire, December 2020 979,715 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,585 ha Yalinga fire, January 2017 238,204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,689 ha Yalinga fire, January 2020 234,858 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,066 ha Yalinga fire, November 2024 53,509 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,368 ha Rafaï fire, January 2016 58,216 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 927 ha Yalinga fire, December 2018 267,715 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 161 ha Rafaï fire, December 2022 12,591 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Rafaï where it started6,289 ha reached on 31 Dec0.2 %
-
503 ha reached on 3 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec | 34.1 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Jan | 35.2 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 Jan | 36.2 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Jan | 35.8 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 4 Jan | 36.2 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 5 Jan | 35.7 °C | 13 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Jan | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 7 Jan | 35.9 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 8 Jan | 36.7 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Jan | 36.2 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 10 Jan | 34.5 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Jan | 35.4 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 12 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Jan after | 36.2 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Jan after | 34.9 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 15 Jan after | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Jan after | 35.0 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Jan after | 35.4 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 18 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 20 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Jan after | 37.3 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
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 11 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 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 · 145Every 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 31 December 2025 to 11 January 2026 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 January 2026 to 10 January 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,739 hectares (67.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rafaï (6,289 ha, 0.2 %); Yalinga (503 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.