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Vassako fire, 12 December 2016 Vassako, Nana-Outa

Out · last detection 26 Dec 2016, 12:41 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2016 in Vassako, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,610 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 26th largest in Bamingui-Bangoran since 2016 (of 223 with a page). Number 30 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Burnt area
16,610ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
12 Dec 2016 – 25 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
12 Dec
2016
Heat detections
560
in a single hotspot: 154 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
9.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec25 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

121314151617181920212223242526

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
40km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Vassako where it started
    16,383 ha reached on 12 Dec
    0.7 %
  2. Nana-Outa
    356 ha reached on 13 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
12 Dec 36.6 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Dec 37.3 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Dec 36.6 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Dec 34.5 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Dec 35.7 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Dec 37.2 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Dec 36.4 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Dec 36.0 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Dec 35.8 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Dec 36.7 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Dec 37.5 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Dec 38.7 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Dec 38.9 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Dec 37.0 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Dec after 35.9 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Dec after 36.4 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Dec after 35.8 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec after 36.5 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
30 Dec after 37.1 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
31 Dec after 36.6 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Jan after 36.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Jan after 36.9 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Jan after 36.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Jan after 37.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2016
After · 1 Jan 2017

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 · 560Every 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 Vassako fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2016 and 25 December 2016: 14 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 16,610 hectares (166.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Vassako (16,383 ha, 0.7 %); Nana-Outa (356 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.