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Yalinga fire, 9 December 2021 Yalinga

Out · last detection 27 Dec 2021, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 9 December 2021 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,828 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 95th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 21 in Central African Republic in 2021, of 95.

Burnt area
13,828ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
9 Dec 2021 – 26 Dec 2021
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
9 Dec
2021
Heat detections
422
in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Dec 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Dec26 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

910111314161718192021222324252627

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
43km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,965 ha in 2016, 3,159 ha in 2017, 2,707 ha in 2018, 2,517 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,087 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    13,941 ha reached on 9 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 Rain Danger (FWI)
9 Dec 34.2 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Dec 34.6 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Dec 35.4 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Dec 35.6 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Dec 36.1 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Dec 36.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Dec 35.3 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Dec 34.3 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Dec 34.0 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Dec 33.0 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Dec 33.0 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Dec 33.0 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Dec 32.8 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Dec 32.6 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Dec 33.5 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Dec 34.2 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Dec 34.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Dec 35.1 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Dec after 34.1 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Dec after 35.0 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Dec after 33.7 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Dec after 33.9 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
31 Dec after 34.4 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Jan after 33.7 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Jan after 33.6 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Jan after 32.0 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Jan after 31.8 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Jan after 32.5 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Dec 2021
After · 2 Jan 2022

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 · 422Every 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 9 December 2021 to 26 December 2021 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 December 2021 to 26 December 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,828 hectares (138.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Yalinga (13,941 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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

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.