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Yalinga fire, 5 December 2016 Yalinga

Out · last detection 24 Dec 2016, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 5 December 2016 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,946 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 160th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 70 in Central African Republic in 2016, of 165.

Burnt area
8,946ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
5 Dec 2016 – 23 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
5 Dec
2016
Heat detections
385
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Dec23 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

56789101112131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
46km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 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. Yalinga where it started
    9,009 ha reached on 5 Dec
    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)
5 Dec 33.7 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Dec 34.5 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Dec 33.4 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Dec 33.7 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Dec 33.1 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Dec 33.8 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Dec 33.4 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Dec 33.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Dec 33.9 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Dec 33.1 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Dec 31.5 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Dec 32.7 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Dec 32.6 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Dec 32.7 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Dec 32.7 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Dec 33.2 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Dec 34.1 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Dec 34.2 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Dec 35.3 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Dec after 35.6 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Dec after 34.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Dec after 33.8 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Dec after 33.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec after 33.4 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec after 34.6 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Dec after 34.5 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Dec after 33.9 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Jan after 34.9 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Jan after 33.7 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Nov 2016
After · 30 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 · 385Every 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 Yalinga fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 December 2016 to 23 December 2016 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 December 2016 to 22 December 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,946 hectares (89.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (9,009 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 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

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.