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CF · Central African Republic · →

Yalinga fire, 19 December 2018 Yalinga

Out · last detection 30 Dec 2018, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 19 December 2018 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,222 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 176th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 44 in Central African Republic in 2018, of 81.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
8,222ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
19 Dec 2018 – 31 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
19 Dec
2018
Heat detections
260
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Dec31 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425262730

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
39km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,744 ha in 2016, 4,455 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,273 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    8,270 ha reached on 19 Dec
    0.2 %

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)
19 Dec 34.7 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Dec 33.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Dec 34.0 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Dec 33.7 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Dec 34.0 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Dec 34.1 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Dec 34.8 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Dec 35.6 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Dec 36.2 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Dec 35.2 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Dec 35.1 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Dec 35.4 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Dec 34.7 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Jan after 35.1 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Jan after 36.5 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Jan after 35.8 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Jan after 36.5 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Jan after 36.8 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Jan after 35.8 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Jan after 35.2 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Jan after 34.9 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Jan after 35.0 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jan after 35.8 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Dec 2018
After · 7 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 · 260Every 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 19 December 2018 to 31 December 2018 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 December 2018 to 26 December 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,222 hectares (82.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (8,270 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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.