Yalinga fire, 23 December 2023 Yalinga
The fire started on 23 December 2023 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,811 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 163th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 16 in Central African Republic in 2023, of 53.
- Burnt area
- 8,811ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 23 Dec 2023 – 6 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 23 Dec
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 311
- in a single hotspot: 100 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,708 ha in 2016, 3,812 ha in 2017, 3,928 ha in 2018, 3,082 ha in 2019, 4,239 ha in 2020, 5,162 ha in 2021, 1,442 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,668 ha that had burned before.
- 3,684 ha Yalinga fire, December 2021 13,892 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,747 ha Yalinga fire, December 2018 10,090 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,266 ha Yalinga fire, December 2019 5,768 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 244 ha Yalinga fire, December 2021 5,918 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 53 ha Al Radoum fire, December 2022 3,192 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 18 ha Al Radoum fire, December 2022 2,964 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Yalinga where it started8,691 ha reached on 23 Dec0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Dec | 33.9 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Dec | 33.4 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Dec | 32.8 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Dec | 32.1 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 27 Dec | 32.4 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Dec | 31.9 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Dec | 32.0 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Dec | 32.0 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Dec | 31.8 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Jan | 32.2 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Jan | 32.9 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Jan | 32.5 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Jan | 32.8 °C | 7 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Jan | 32.3 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 6 Jan | 32.2 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Jan after | 32.2 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Jan after | 32.3 °C | 11 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 Jan after | 33.8 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Jan after | 33.9 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Jan after | 33.3 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Jan after | 33.4 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 13 Jan after | 33.9 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Jan after | 34.0 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 15 Jan after | 31.8 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 16 Jan after | 31.8 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 311Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,892 haYalinga17 December 2021 · 13 days · 5 km away
- 15,897 haYalinga16 December 2021 · 13 days · 21 km away
- 16,025 haYalinga27 December 2024 · 10 days · 28 km away
- 16,467 haYalinga10 December 2021 · 22 days · 29 km away
- 48,896 haYalinga25 December 2025 · 34 days · 31 km away
- 107,239 haYalinga12 December 2025 · 42 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Yalinga fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 December 2023 to 6 January 2024 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 December 2023 to 4 January 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,811 hectares (88.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Yalinga (8,691 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.
Report an error
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.