Rafaï fire, March 2026 Rafaï
The fire started on 6 March 2026 in Rafaï, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,610 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 51th largest in Mbomou since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 78 in Central African Republic in 2026, of 148.
- Burnt area
- 7,610ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 6 Mar 2026 – 14 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 6 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 73
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 666MW
- 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: 4.0 mm on 17 Mar.
This area had burned before
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 628 ha in 2016, 3,076 ha in 2018, 3,748 ha in 2019, 3,416 ha in 2020, 105 ha in 2021, 2,440 ha in 2022, 584 ha in 2024, 707 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,929 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Rafaï where it started7,661 ha reached on 6 Mar0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Mar | 36.4 °C | 12 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Mar | 37.7 °C | 10 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 Mar | 38.7 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 9 Mar | 39.0 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 10 Mar | 36.0 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 11 Mar | 36.7 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Mar | 34.5 °C | 29 % | 20 km/h | 2.6 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 13 Mar | 37.0 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Mar | 38.6 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Mar after | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Mar after | 33.5 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Mar after | 34.6 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 4.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 48: 3.2 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 · 73Every 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?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 March 2026 and 14 March 2026: 9 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,610 hectares (76.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Rafaï (7,661 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 37 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.