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Yalinga fire, 6 December 2018 Yalinga

Out · last detection 3 Jan 2019, 12:03 UTC

The fire started on 6 December 2018 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,955 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 290th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 62 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Burnt area
5,955ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
6 Dec 2018 – 3 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
6 Dec
2018
Heat detections
198
in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Dec3 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

67891012131415161718192021222324252627293023

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
42km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,590 ha in 2016, 159 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    6,001 ha reached on 6 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
6 Dec 33.5 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Dec 33.3 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Dec 34.2 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Dec 34.1 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Dec 33.0 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Dec 33.4 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Dec 33.6 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Dec 33.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Dec 34.2 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Dec 34.6 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Dec 35.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Dec 35.4 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Dec 33.1 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Dec 33.5 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Dec 32.8 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Dec 32.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Dec 32.3 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Dec 32.7 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Dec 32.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Dec 34.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Dec 35.2 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Dec 36.1 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 35.3 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Dec 35.1 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Dec 34.0 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Dec 34.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Jan 34.4 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Jan 36.5 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Jan 35.2 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Jan after 36.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan after 36.2 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Jan after 36.3 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Jan after 34.4 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Jan after 34.3 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jan after 34.2 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Jan after 35.2 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan after 35.7 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Jan after 37.7 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Jan after 38.2 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Nov 2018
After · 10 Jan 2019

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 · 198Every 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 6 December 2018 to 3 January 2019 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 December 2018 to 27 December 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,955 hectares (59.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (6,001 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 42 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.