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Yalinga fire, 11 January 2018 Yalinga

Out · last detection 1 Feb 2018, 12:02 UTC

The fire started on 11 January 2018 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 30,294 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 52th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 14 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Burnt area
30,294ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
11 Jan 2018 – 31 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
11 Jan
2018
Heat detections
1,103
in a single hotspot: 115 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Feb 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jan31 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718192021222324252930311

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
43km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18,614 ha in 2016, 22,003 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 26,803 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    30,419 ha reached on 11 Jan
    0.7 %

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)
11 Jan 34.6 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Jan 35.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Jan 36.3 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Jan 35.2 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Jan 35.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Jan 34.9 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jan 35.2 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Jan 34.9 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Jan 35.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Jan 35.1 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Jan 35.5 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Jan 36.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Jan 35.8 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Jan 34.6 °C 11 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jan 34.2 °C 22 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jan 34.5 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Jan 35.3 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Jan 36.0 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Jan 35.6 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Jan 35.4 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
31 Jan 35.2 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
1 Feb after 35.8 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
2 Feb after 36.8 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
3 Feb after 37.4 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Feb after 37.2 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
5 Feb after 38.1 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Feb after 39.2 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Feb after 39.7 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Feb after 39.6 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Feb after 38.7 °C 15 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Feb after 36.6 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jan 2018
After · 7 Feb 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 · 1,103Every 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 11 January 2018 to 31 January 2018 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 January 2018 to 24 January 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 30,294 hectares (302.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (30,419 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.