Yalinga fire, 6 January 2024 Yalinga
The fire started on 6 January 2024 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,956 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 288th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 63 in Central African Republic in 2024, of 91.
- Burnt area
- 5,956ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 6 Jan 2024 – 20 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 6 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 231
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 878 ha in 2016, 3,103 ha in 2017, 2,021 ha in 2018, 598 ha in 2019, 816 ha in 2020, 637 ha in 2021, 30 ha in 2022, 1,144 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,033 ha that had burned before.
- 3,098 ha Yalinga fire, December 2017 21,105 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,118 ha Yalinga fire, January 2023 17,977 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 626 ha Yalinga fire, December 2018 136,358 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Yalinga fire, December 2021 6,887 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Yalinga where it started5,997 ha reached on 6 Jan0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Jan | 34.4 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Jan | 34.5 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 8 Jan | 34.6 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 9 Jan | 35.2 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Jan | 36.1 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 11 Jan | 35.8 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 12 Jan | 35.5 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Jan | 35.5 °C | 10 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 14 Jan | 36.2 °C | 9 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Jan | 34.4 °C | 8 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 16 Jan | 34.7 °C | 9 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 17 Jan | 34.3 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 18 Jan | 34.2 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 19 Jan | 34.8 °C | 7 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 20 Jan | 34.3 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 21 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 7 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 22 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 8 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 23 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 8 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 24 Jan after | 37.0 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 25 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 26 Jan after | 33.9 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 27 Jan after | 33.8 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 28 Jan after | 34.4 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 29 Jan after | 35.4 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
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 · 231Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Yalinga fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 January 2024 to 20 January 2024 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 January 2024 to 17 January 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,956 hectares (59.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Yalinga (5,997 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.