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Vassako fire, 6 December 2016 Vassako

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2016, 12:35 UTC

The fire started on 6 December 2016 in Vassako, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,749 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 53th largest in Bamingui-Bangoran since 2016 (of 223 with a page). Number 56 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Burnt area
11,749ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
6 Dec 2016 – 21 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
6 Dec
2016
Heat detections
418
in a single hotspot: 184 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Dec21 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

678910131415161718192021

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
37km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 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
    11,839 ha reached on 6 Dec
    0.5 %

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 Dec 36.8 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Dec 35.8 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Dec 38.1 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Dec 37.5 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Dec 36.9 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Dec 36.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Dec 36.8 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Dec 37.6 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Dec 36.7 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Dec 34.3 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Dec 35.7 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Dec 37.2 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Dec 36.5 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Dec 36.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Dec 35.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Dec 36.9 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Dec after 37.7 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec after 39.0 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Dec after 38.9 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Dec after 37.1 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Dec after 36.4 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Dec after 36.8 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Dec after 35.9 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec after 36.6 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Dec after 37.3 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Dec after 36.7 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Nov 2016
After · 28 Dec 2016

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 · 418Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 December 2016 to 21 December 2016 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 December 2016 to 21 December 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,749 hectares (117.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vassako (11,839 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.