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Yalinga fire, 27 January 2017 Yalinga

Out · last detection 6 Feb 2017, 23:49 UTC

The fire started on 27 January 2017 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,815 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 232th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 55 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 100.

Burnt area
6,815ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
27 Jan 2017 – 6 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
27 Jan
2017
Heat detections
221
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jan6 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

273031123456

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
45km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,076 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    6,849 ha reached on 27 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)
27 Jan 36.4 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Jan 37.8 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Jan 34.8 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jan 36.4 °C 14 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Jan 37.0 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Feb 37.7 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Feb 36.3 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
3 Feb 35.3 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
4 Feb 36.1 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Feb 38.1 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Feb 38.9 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Feb after 39.4 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Feb after 38.0 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Feb after 37.6 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Feb after 38.1 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Feb after 37.6 °C 15 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Feb after 38.8 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Feb after 36.2 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Feb after 36.1 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 Feb after 37.2 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Feb after 37.2 °C 10 % 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 · 20 Jan 2017
After · 13 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 · 221Every 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 27 January 2017 to 6 February 2017 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 January 2017 to 6 February 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,815 hectares (68.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (6,849 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 45 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.