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Yalinga fire, 18 December 2018 Yalinga

Out · last detection 2 Feb 2019, 11:00 UTC

The fire started on 18 December 2018 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 47 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 71,520 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.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 24th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 9 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Yalinga · 2017Yalinga · 2016Yalinga · 2016Yalinga · 2017

Burnt area
71,520ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
47days
18 Dec 2018 – 2 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
18 Dec
2018
Heat detections
3,109
in a single hotspot: 221 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
464MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Dec2 Feb
2 Feb 2019

How it evolved, day by day

18 Dec 2018 · 198 MW · 17 19 Dec 2018 · 383 MW · 47 20 Dec 2018 · 686 MW · 66 21 Dec 2018 · 91 MW · 56 22 Dec 2018 · 116 MW · 23 23 Dec 2018 · 157 MW · 23 24 Dec 2018 · 433 MW · 52 25 Dec 2018 · 847 MW · 107 26 Dec 2018 · 1,555 MW · 133 27 Dec 2018 · 1,019 MW · 55 28 Dec 2018 · 64 MW · 17 29 Dec 2018 · 120 MW · 18 30 Dec 2018 · 928 MW · 79 31 Dec 2018 · 737 MW · 168 1 Jan 2019 · 165 MW · 42 2 Jan 2019 · 765 MW · 81 3 Jan 2019 · 1,101 MW · 143 4 Jan 2019 · 682 MW · 109 5 Jan 2019 · 643 MW · 55 6 Jan 2019 · 472 MW · 156 7 Jan 2019 · 1,222 MW · 117 8 Jan 2019 · 91 MW · 47 9 Jan 2019 · 916 MW · 148 10 Jan 2019 · 498 MW · 135 11 Jan 2019 · 1,156 MW · 267 12 Jan 2019 · 1,458 MW · 169 13 Jan 2019 · 599 MW · 113 14 Jan 2019 · 12 MW · 2 15 Jan 2019 · 388 MW · 84 16 Jan 2019 · 136 MW · 35 17 Jan 2019 · 211 MW · 22 18 Jan 2019 · 131 MW · 48 19 Jan 2019 · 414 MW · 54 20 Jan 2019 · 401 MW · 53 21 Jan 2019 · 679 MW · 73 22 Jan 2019 · 976 MW · 144 23 Jan 2019 · 349 MW · 56 24 Jan 2019 · 338 MW · 54 25 Jan 2019 · 59 MW · 9 26 Jan 2019 · 114 MW · 18 27 Jan 2019 · 15 MW · 7 28 Jan 2019 · 1 MW · 1 29 Jan 2019 · 15 MW · 3 30 Jan 2019 · 6 MW · 1 31 Jan 2019 · 1 MW · 1 2 Feb 2019 · 2 MW · 1
18 Dec 25 Dec 26 Dec 1 Jan 8 Jan 15 Jan 22 Jan 29 Jan

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 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 41,749 ha in 2016, 28,666 ha in 2017, 5,332 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 52,765 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 45% of the area of London (715 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    71,921 ha reached on 18 Dec
    1.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
18 Dec 33.3 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Dec 34.3 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Dec 33.5 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Dec 33.6 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Dec 33.2 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec 33.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Dec 33.8 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Dec 34.7 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Dec 35.5 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Dec 35.9 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Dec 35.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Dec 34.8 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Dec 34.9 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Dec 33.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Jan 34.6 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Jan 36.6 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Jan 35.8 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Jan 36.1 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Jan 36.3 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Jan 35.6 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Jan 34.7 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
8 Jan 34.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Jan 34.6 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Jan 35.7 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan 36.9 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Jan 37.7 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Jan 37.8 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jan 35.3 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Jan 34.6 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jan 34.9 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Jan 35.3 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jan 35.6 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Jan 36.8 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
20 Jan 37.1 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Jan 37.4 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan 37.5 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Jan 37.2 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Jan 38.0 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Jan 37.5 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Jan 37.3 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Jan 35.3 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jan 35.5 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 39
29 Jan 36.4 °C 15 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jan 35.5 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Jan 37.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Feb 37.5 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Feb 38.0 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Feb after 37.8 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Feb after 37.6 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Feb after 37.0 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Feb after 36.4 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Feb after 37.4 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Feb after 36.9 °C 12 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Feb after 37.2 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
10 Feb after 37.6 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Feb after 35.2 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
12 Feb after 36.4 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Dec 2018
After · 9 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 · 3,109Every 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 18 December 2018 to 2 February 2019 (47 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 December 2018 to 27 January 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 71,520 hectares (715.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (71,921 ha, 1.7 %).
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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 27 January 2019 → 2 February 2019.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 December 2018 to 27 January 2019. 3,109 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.