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Yalinga fire, 14 December 2020 Yalinga

Out · last detection 14 Jan 2021, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 14 December 2020 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,022 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 128th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 373 with a page). Number 36 in Central African Republic in 2020, of 101.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Yalinga · 2018Yalinga · 2017Yalinga · 2020Yalinga · 2026

Burnt area
11,022ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
31days
14 Dec 2020 – 13 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
14 Dec
2020
Heat detections
386
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
91MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Dec13 Jan
14 Jan 2021

How it evolved, day by day

14 Dec 2020 · 169 MW · 15 15 Dec 2020 · 1 MW · 1 16 Dec 2020 · 251 MW · 14 17 Dec 2020 · 16 MW · 3 18 Dec 2020 · 3 MW · 1 19 Dec 2020 · 21 MW · 6 20 Dec 2020 · 73 MW · 10 21 Dec 2020 · 28 MW · 7 22 Dec 2020 · 777 MW · 65 23 Dec 2020 · 313 MW · 43 24 Dec 2020 · 147 MW · 35 25 Dec 2020 · 3 MW · 3 26 Dec 2020 · 43 MW · 20 27 Dec 2020 · 2 MW · 1 28 Dec 2020 · 14 MW · 2 29 Dec 2020 · 238 MW · 16 30 Dec 2020 · 93 MW · 22 31 Dec 2020 · 22 MW · 27 1 Jan 2021 · 164 MW · 17 2 Jan 2021 · 19 MW · 5 3 Jan 2021 · 111 MW · 16 4 Jan 2021 · 22 MW · 9 5 Jan 2021 · 23 MW · 7 6 Jan 2021 · 16 MW · 3 7 Jan 2021 · 7 MW · 5 8 Jan 2021 · 83 MW · 15 9 Jan 2021 · 27 MW · 8 10 Jan 2021 · 19 MW · 3 11 Jan 2021 · 22 MW · 5 14 Jan 2021 · 5 MW · 2
14 Dec 19 Dec 22 Dec 24 Dec 29 Dec 3 Jan 8 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

36°high
48km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,890 ha in 2016, 5,778 ha in 2017, 6,975 ha in 2018, 2 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,148 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 7% of the area of London (110 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
    11,094 ha reached on 14 Dec
    0.3 %

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)
14 Dec 35.7 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Dec 36.0 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Dec 35.1 °C 8 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Dec 34.1 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Dec 33.9 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Dec 33.9 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Dec 34.4 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Dec 34.3 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Dec 34.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Dec 35.1 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Dec 34.9 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Dec 35.1 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Dec 34.6 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Dec 35.1 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Dec 35.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Dec 35.6 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Dec 35.9 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Dec 35.9 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
1 Jan 36.0 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Jan 35.3 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jan 35.4 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Jan 35.8 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Jan 35.3 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
6 Jan 35.7 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
7 Jan 35.3 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Jan 34.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Jan 33.5 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Jan 33.9 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Jan 34.0 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Jan 34.9 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Jan 35.7 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Jan after 35.4 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Jan after 35.3 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Jan after 35.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Jan after 36.1 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jan after 35.7 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Jan after 34.5 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
20 Jan after 33.4 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
21 Jan after 33.6 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 Jan after 34.5 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Jan after 35.7 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Dec 2020
After · 20 Jan 2021

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 · 386Every 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 14 December 2020 to 13 January 2021 (31 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 December 2020 to 6 January 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,022 hectares (110.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (11,094 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 December 2020 to 6 January 2021. 386 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.