How long did the Yalinga fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 December 2020 to 20 January 2021 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 January 2021 to 15 January 2021.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,608 hectares (126.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Yalinga (12,708 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.

CF · Central African Republic · 2020-12-31 → 2021-01-20

Yalinga fire, 31 December 2020 Yalinga

Out · last detection 20 Jan 2021, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 31 December 2020 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,608 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 107th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 31 in Central African Republic in 2020, of 103.

Burnt area: 12,608ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 21days; 31 Dec 2020 – 20 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit: 1; sub-prefectures
Started on: 31 Dec; 2020
Heat detections: 434; in a single hotspot: 137 MW
Danger at start: 51; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 3.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 20 Jan 2021

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Dec20 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

311234567891011121314151617181920

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

9%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,557 ha in 2016, 2,202 ha in 2018, 2,010 ha in 2019, 220 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,362 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Yalinga where it started

12,708 ha reached on 31 Dec

0.3 %

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	Danger (FWI)
31 Dec	35.4 °C	14 %	37 km/h	Extreme 51
1 Jan	35.1 °C	14 %	33 km/h	Very high 49
2 Jan	35.3 °C	16 %	30 km/h	Very high 47
3 Jan	35.5 °C	12 %	28 km/h	Very high 50
4 Jan	35.5 °C	14 %	38 km/h	Extreme 53
5 Jan	35.1 °C	14 %	43 km/h	Extreme 56
6 Jan	35.1 °C	12 %	45 km/h	Extreme 58
7 Jan	34.7 °C	12 %	40 km/h	Extreme 55
8 Jan	34.1 °C	13 %	38 km/h	Extreme 55
9 Jan	33.2 °C	14 %	33 km/h	Extreme 52
10 Jan	32.9 °C	11 %	37 km/h	Extreme 53
11 Jan	33.4 °C	10 %	35 km/h	Extreme 53
12 Jan	34.4 °C	11 %	33 km/h	Extreme 52
13 Jan	35.0 °C	12 %	37 km/h	Extreme 54
14 Jan	34.6 °C	11 %	33 km/h	Extreme 52
15 Jan	34.3 °C	11 %	34 km/h	Extreme 54
16 Jan	34.5 °C	13 %	29 km/h	Extreme 53
17 Jan	35.4 °C	11 %	31 km/h	Extreme 56
18 Jan	34.8 °C	9 %	43 km/h	Extreme 60
19 Jan	33.7 °C	13 %	45 km/h	Extreme 62
20 Jan	32.5 °C	10 %	48 km/h	Extreme 64
21 Jan after	32.3 °C	13 %	41 km/h	Extreme 59
22 Jan after	33.7 °C	14 %	36 km/h	Extreme 56
23 Jan after	35.1 °C	14 %	29 km/h	Extreme 53
24 Jan after	35.3 °C	14 %	34 km/h	Extreme 55
25 Jan after	35.9 °C	16 %	36 km/h	Extreme 55
26 Jan after	35.1 °C	14 %	32 km/h	Extreme 56
27 Jan after	36.3 °C	14 %	33 km/h	Extreme 54
28 Jan after	36.7 °C	13 %	39 km/h	Extreme 57
29 Jan after	35.0 °C	8 %	41 km/h	Extreme 59
30 Jan after	34.5 °C	10 %	46 km/h	Extreme 63

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Dec 2020

After · 27 Jan 2021

Before After

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 · 434Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

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 31 December 2020 to 20 January 2021 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 January 2021 to 15 January 2021.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,608 hectares (126.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Yalinga (12,708 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned