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Yalinga fire, 8 December 2017 Yalinga

Out · last detection 2 Jan 2018, 11:25 UTC

The fire started on 8 December 2017 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,105 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 63th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 15 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 100.

Burnt area
21,105ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
8 Dec 2017 – 2 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
8 Dec
2017
Heat detections
843
in a single hotspot: 116 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Dec2 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,808 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    21,253 ha reached on 8 Dec
    0.5 %

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)
8 Dec 32.5 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Dec 32.2 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Dec 34.3 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Dec 34.6 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Dec 35.2 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Dec 34.5 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Dec 34.5 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Dec 34.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Dec 33.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Dec 33.7 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Dec 34.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Dec 35.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Dec 35.2 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Dec 35.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Dec 35.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Dec 36.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Dec 35.5 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Dec 33.7 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Dec 33.4 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Dec 33.7 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 35.6 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec 35.4 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Dec 35.1 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Dec 32.7 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Jan 30.9 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Jan 30.1 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Jan after 30.6 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Jan after 31.0 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan after 30.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Jan after 31.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Jan after 32.0 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Jan after 32.1 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jan after 31.7 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
10 Jan after 32.7 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan after 33.7 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Jan after 34.5 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Dec 2017
After · 9 Jan 2018

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 · 843Every 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 8 December 2017 to 2 January 2018 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 December 2017 to 26 December 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 21,105 hectares (211.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (21,253 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % 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.