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Yalinga fire, 17 January 2017 Yalinga, Rafaï

Out · last detection 8 Feb 2017, 12:15 UTC

The fire started on 17 January 2017 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 238,204 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 5th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). The largest in Central African Republic in 2017, of 100.

Burnt area
238,204ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
17 Jan 2017 – 7 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
17 Jan
2017
Heat detections
7,655
in a single hotspot: 275 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
73.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jan7 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

17181920212223242526272829303112345678

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
46km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 77,346 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    132,922 ha reached on 17 Jan
    3.2 %
  2. Rafaï
    106,711 ha reached on 17 Jan
    3.8 %

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)
18 Jan 38.7 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Jan 38.4 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Jan 38.1 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Jan 38.4 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Jan 38.5 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Jan 39.0 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
24 Jan 37.6 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Jan 35.8 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Jan 36.2 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Jan 36.0 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Jan 36.9 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Jan 34.4 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jan 36.1 °C 13 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Jan 36.3 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Feb 37.1 °C 8 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
2 Feb 35.0 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
3 Feb 34.7 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Feb 35.7 °C 10 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Feb 38.0 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Feb 38.4 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
7 Feb 38.4 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Feb after 37.5 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Feb after 36.6 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Feb after 38.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Feb after 38.3 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Feb after 38.5 °C 12 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Feb after 35.2 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Feb after 35.9 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Feb after 37.1 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Feb after 37.0 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Feb after 34.5 °C 11 % 34 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 · 10 Jan 2017
After · 14 Feb 2017

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 · 7,655Every 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 17 January 2017 to 7 February 2017 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 January 2017 to 7 February 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 238,204 hectares (2,382.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yalinga (132,922 ha, 3.2 %); Rafaï (106,711 ha, 3.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.