Skip to content
worldfires
en
CF · Central African Republic · →

Yalinga fire, 4 January 2020 Yalinga, Rafaï

Out · last detection 22 Feb 2020, 23:17 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2020 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 50 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 234,858 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

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 6th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 373 with a page). Number 5 in Central African Republic in 2020, of 101.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Yalinga · 2018Yalinga · 2017Rafaï · 2018Yalinga · 2016

Burnt area
234,858ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
50days
4 Jan 2020 – 22 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
4 Jan
2020
Heat detections
9,367
in a single hotspot: 202 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
1.2GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan22 Feb
22 Feb 2020

How it evolved, day by day

4 Jan 2020 · 1,131 MW · 205 5 Jan 2020 · 484 MW · 117 6 Jan 2020 · 447 MW · 50 7 Jan 2020 · 169 MW · 32 8 Jan 2020 · 1,424 MW · 172 9 Jan 2020 · 2,481 MW · 434 10 Jan 2020 · 1,284 MW · 232 11 Jan 2020 · 1,179 MW · 168 12 Jan 2020 · 1,302 MW · 170 13 Jan 2020 · 1,502 MW · 210 14 Jan 2020 · 1,867 MW · 336 15 Jan 2020 · 1,507 MW · 219 16 Jan 2020 · 1,501 MW · 150 17 Jan 2020 · 1,188 MW · 116 18 Jan 2020 · 1,734 MW · 225 19 Jan 2020 · 1,040 MW · 309 20 Jan 2020 · 586 MW · 118 21 Jan 2020 · 929 MW · 219 22 Jan 2020 · 996 MW · 149 23 Jan 2020 · 1,546 MW · 214 24 Jan 2020 · 804 MW · 167 25 Jan 2020 · 1,041 MW · 404 26 Jan 2020 · 2,691 MW · 335 27 Jan 2020 · 1,742 MW · 215 28 Jan 2020 · 2,124 MW · 162 29 Jan 2020 · 1,714 MW · 273 30 Jan 2020 · 3,437 MW · 580 31 Jan 2020 · 1,917 MW · 222 1 Feb 2020 · 1,390 MW · 174 2 Feb 2020 · 1,521 MW · 132 3 Feb 2020 · 3,040 MW · 324 4 Feb 2020 · 1,706 MW · 360 5 Feb 2020 · 1,518 MW · 152 6 Feb 2020 · 284 MW · 54 7 Feb 2020 · 816 MW · 87 8 Feb 2020 · 1,291 MW · 181 9 Feb 2020 · 672 MW · 164 10 Feb 2020 · 745 MW · 260 11 Feb 2020 · 661 MW · 171 12 Feb 2020 · 936 MW · 183 13 Feb 2020 · 1,126 MW · 176 14 Feb 2020 · 1,253 MW · 205 15 Feb 2020 · 1,345 MW · 227 16 Feb 2020 · 1,373 MW · 126 17 Feb 2020 · 318 MW · 28 18 Feb 2020 · 339 MW · 34 19 Feb 2020 · 296 MW · 44 20 Feb 2020 · 97 MW · 52 21 Feb 2020 · 107 MW · 22 22 Feb 2020 · 21 MW · 8
4 Jan 12 Jan 20 Jan 28 Jan 30 Jan 5 Feb 13 Feb 21 Feb

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
47km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 121,356 ha in 2016, 136,799 ha in 2017, 66,906 ha in 2018, 144,685 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 222,624 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.5 times the area of London (2,349 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
    217,913 ha reached on 4 Jan
    5.2 %
  2. Rafaï
    18,092 ha reached on 4 Jan
    0.6 %

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 area0.51 ha
Residents≈ 100

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.51 hectares of built-up land and about 100 residents (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)
4 Jan 34.0 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Jan 33.2 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Jan 34.1 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jan 35.0 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan 35.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Jan 35.4 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Jan 35.7 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Jan 34.1 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Jan 32.6 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Jan 33.7 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jan 35.5 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Jan 37.4 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jan 38.1 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Jan 37.5 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Jan 35.3 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan 34.5 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Jan 34.7 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Jan 34.4 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Jan 33.7 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
23 Jan 32.7 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Jan 32.6 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
25 Jan 33.5 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Jan 34.0 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Jan 35.3 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Jan 36.4 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Jan 36.1 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Jan 36.4 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Jan 34.9 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Feb 34.8 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Feb 35.4 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Feb 36.5 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Feb 36.7 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Feb 35.4 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Feb 34.7 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Feb 37.0 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Feb 38.5 °C 10 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
9 Feb 37.0 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
10 Feb 36.5 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Feb 35.5 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
12 Feb 34.3 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
13 Feb 35.7 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Feb 37.2 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Feb 37.9 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Feb 38.5 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
17 Feb 37.3 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Feb 36.0 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 44
19 Feb 36.6 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Feb 37.1 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Feb 37.3 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Feb 38.4 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
23 Feb after 35.8 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Feb after 38.9 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Feb after 36.4 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Feb after 36.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Feb after 38.7 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
28 Feb after 39.4 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Dec 2019
After · 29 Feb 2020

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 · 9,367Every 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 4 January 2020 to 22 February 2020 (50 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 January 2020 to 18 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 234,858 hectares (2,348.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yalinga (217,913 ha, 5.2 %); Rafaï (18,092 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 January 2020 to 18 February 2020. 9,367 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.