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Vassako fire, 9 January 2022 Vassako

Out · last detection 22 Jan 2022, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 9 January 2022 in Vassako, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,137 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 72th largest in Bamingui-Bangoran since 2016 (of 223 with a page). Number 45 in Central African Republic in 2022, of 98.

Burnt area
9,137ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
9 Jan 2022 – 22 Jan 2022
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
9 Jan
2022
Heat detections
272
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jan 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Jan22 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131416171819202122

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
36km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,185 ha in 2016, 3,254 ha in 2017, 1,462 ha in 2018, 2,386 ha in 2019, 3,844 ha in 2020, 5,372 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,725 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Vassako where it started
    9,194 ha reached on 9 Jan
    0.4 %

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)
9 Jan 38.8 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Jan 36.3 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Jan 36.4 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Jan 37.0 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Jan 37.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Jan 37.7 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jan 37.0 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Jan 34.8 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jan 33.4 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Jan 33.8 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan 34.5 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan 34.7 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jan 36.0 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Jan 37.2 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Jan after 36.6 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Jan after 37.2 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Jan after 37.5 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Jan after 37.4 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Jan after 36.4 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Jan after 35.8 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Jan after 35.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Jan after 35.8 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
31 Jan after 35.7 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Feb after 35.9 °C 12 % 23 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 · 2 Jan 2022
After · 29 Jan 2022

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 · 272Every 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 9 January 2022 to 22 January 2022 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 January 2022 to 22 January 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,137 hectares (91.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vassako (9,194 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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

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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.