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Yalinga fire, 27 December 2017 Yalinga

Out · last detection 23 Jan 2018, 11:31 UTC

The fire started on 27 December 2017 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 42,074 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 40th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 7 in Central African Republic in 2017, of 100.

Burnt area
42,074ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
27 Dec 2017 – 23 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
27 Dec
2017
Heat detections
2,091
in a single hotspot: 134 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
13.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Dec23 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223

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
44km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 26,395 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 23,300 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    42,323 ha reached on 27 Dec
    1.0 %

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 Dec 34.6 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Dec 35.9 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Dec 35.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Dec 35.4 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Dec 32.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Jan 32.0 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Jan 31.1 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jan 31.7 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Jan 32.2 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Jan 31.6 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Jan 32.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Jan 32.7 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Jan 32.9 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Jan 32.5 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Jan 33.4 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Jan 34.2 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jan 35.1 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Jan 36.1 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Jan 36.0 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jan 34.0 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Jan 34.1 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Jan 34.2 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jan 34.4 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Jan 34.4 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Jan 34.3 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Jan 35.0 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan 36.3 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Jan 35.6 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
24 Jan after 34.0 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Jan after 34.6 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Jan after 34.2 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Jan after 34.5 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
28 Jan after 34.2 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Jan after 34.4 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
30 Jan after 34.3 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
31 Jan after 33.8 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
1 Feb after 34.5 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Feb after 35.8 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Dec 2017
After · 30 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 · 2,091Every 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 December 2017 to 23 January 2018 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 December 2017 to 16 January 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 42,074 hectares (420.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (42,323 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.