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CF · Central African Republic · →

Yalinga fire, 16 December 2018 Yalinga

Out · last detection 2 Feb 2019, 23:37 UTC

The fire started on 16 December 2018 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 48 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 109,809 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 15th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 5 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Burnt area
109,809ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
48days
16 Dec 2018 – 1 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
16 Dec
2018
Heat detections
5,842
in a single hotspot: 241 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
45.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Dec1 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
42km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 58,318 ha in 2016, 48,810 ha in 2017, 4,094 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 74,437 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    110,463 ha reached on 16 Dec
    2.7 %

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)
16 Dec 35.3 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Dec 35.3 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Dec 33.3 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Dec 34.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Dec 33.5 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Dec 33.6 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Dec 33.2 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Dec 33.5 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Dec 33.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Dec 34.7 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Dec 35.5 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Dec 36.0 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 35.3 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Dec 34.9 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Dec 35.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Dec 34.1 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Jan 34.6 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Jan 36.6 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Jan 35.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Jan 36.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Jan 36.5 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Jan 36.0 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jan 34.8 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan 35.0 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Jan 34.9 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Jan 35.9 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
11 Jan 37.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Jan 37.9 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Jan 37.8 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jan 35.4 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jan 34.7 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jan 35.2 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Jan 35.1 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Jan 35.7 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jan 37.0 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Jan 37.1 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Jan 37.4 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
22 Jan 37.6 °C 8 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Jan 37.4 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Jan 38.0 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jan 38.0 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Jan 37.3 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Jan 34.8 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jan 36.1 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Jan 37.0 °C 15 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jan 36.5 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Jan 37.7 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Feb 37.8 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
2 Feb after 38.2 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Feb after 37.9 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Feb after 38.3 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Feb after 37.4 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Feb after 37.0 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Feb after 37.4 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Feb after 37.3 °C 11 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Feb after 37.3 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Feb after 37.5 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
11 Feb after 35.4 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Dec 2018
After · 8 Feb 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 · 5,842Every 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 16 December 2018 to 1 February 2019 (48 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 December 2018 to 25 January 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 109,809 hectares (1,098.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (110,463 ha, 2.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.