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Yalinga fire, 12 December 2018 Yalinga

Out · last detection 11 Jan 2019, 23:49 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2018 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 136,358 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 12th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 2 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Burnt area
136,358ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
12 Dec 2018 – 10 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
12 Dec
2018
Heat detections
6,565
in a single hotspot: 252 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
60.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jan 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec10 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011

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
45km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 43,610 ha in 2016, 59,952 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 81,824 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    137,291 ha reached on 12 Dec
    3.3 %

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)
12 Dec 33.0 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Dec 33.1 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Dec 33.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Dec 33.9 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Dec 35.1 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Dec 34.6 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Dec 32.6 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Dec 33.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Dec 32.3 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Dec 32.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Dec 31.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Dec 32.2 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Dec 32.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Dec 33.7 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Dec 34.7 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Dec 34.9 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 34.4 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Dec 34.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Dec 33.5 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Dec 33.3 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Jan 33.3 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Jan 35.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jan 34.3 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
4 Jan 35.1 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan 35.4 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Jan 35.4 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Jan 33.8 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Jan 34.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Jan 33.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Jan 34.9 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Jan after 35.4 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Jan after 36.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Jan after 37.1 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Jan after 35.8 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Jan after 33.8 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.7 mm High 32
16 Jan after 35.3 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jan after 33.9 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jan after 34.7 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan after 36.0 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan after 36.0 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2018
After · 17 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 · 6,565Every 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 12 December 2018 to 10 January 2019 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 December 2018 to 3 January 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 136,358 hectares (1,363.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (137,291 ha, 3.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.