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Vassako fire, 26 December 2017 Vassako

Out · last detection 10 Jan 2018, 12:15 UTC

The fire started on 26 December 2017 in Vassako, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,305 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 156th largest in Bamingui-Bangoran since 2016 (of 223 with a page). Number 65 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 100.

Burnt area
6,305ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
26 Dec 2017 – 10 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
26 Dec
2017
Heat detections
198
in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Dec10 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2627293112345678910

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
32km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,146 ha in 2016, 209 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,063 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Vassako where it started
    6,343 ha reached on 26 Dec
    0.3 %

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)
26 Dec 35.6 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Dec 35.5 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Dec 35.7 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Dec 35.0 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Dec 35.3 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Dec 35.8 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Jan 35.1 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Jan 33.9 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Jan 33.1 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Jan 33.2 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Jan 33.1 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Jan 33.5 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Jan 35.2 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan 35.0 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Jan 34.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Jan 35.6 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Jan after 35.8 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Jan after 35.4 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Jan after 35.4 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jan after 35.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jan after 37.0 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan after 36.0 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jan after 36.2 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jan after 35.2 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jan after 36.2 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jan after 36.1 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Dec 2017
After · 17 Jan 2018

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 · 198Every 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 26 December 2017 to 10 January 2018 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 January 2018 to 9 January 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,305 hectares (63.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vassako (6,343 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

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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.