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Vassako fire, 6 January 2020 Vassako

Out · last detection 19 Jan 2020, 11:18 UTC

The fire started on 6 January 2020 in Vassako, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,490 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 193th largest in Bamingui-Bangoran since 2016 (of 223 with a page). Number 90 in Central African Republic in 2020, of 103.

Burnt area
5,490ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
6 Jan 2020 – 22 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
6 Jan
2020
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 200 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jan22 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314151619

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
36km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 800 ha in 2016, 1,779 ha in 2017, 4,220 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,204 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Vassako where it started
    5,524 ha reached on 6 Jan
    0.2 %

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 Jan 34.7 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Jan 36.3 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Jan 37.8 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Jan 37.9 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Jan 37.6 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Jan 35.7 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Jan 34.8 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Jan 35.5 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Jan 36.0 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Jan 38.0 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan 38.1 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Jan 37.4 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Jan 37.2 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan 35.7 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jan 35.6 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Jan 36.3 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Jan 35.5 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Jan after 34.1 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Jan after 33.4 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Jan after 33.8 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Jan after 35.8 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Jan after 36.7 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Jan after 36.8 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Jan after 37.3 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Jan after 37.6 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Jan after 35.7 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Feb after 36.6 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Dec 2019
After · 29 Jan 2020

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 · 161Every 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 January 2020 to 22 January 2020 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 January 2020 to 16 January 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,490 hectares (54.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vassako (5,524 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.