Yalinga fire, 28 January 2024 Yalinga
The fire started on 28 January 2024 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 43,797 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 37th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 4 in Central African Republic in 2024, of 91.
- Burnt area
- 43,797ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 28 Jan 2024 – 12 Feb 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 28 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 1,555
- in a single hotspot: 97 MW
- Danger at start
- 58
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 9.1GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 23,642 ha in 2016, 19,600 ha in 2017, 23,527 ha in 2018, 8,641 ha in 2019, 51,934 ha in 2020, 6,727 ha in 2021, 51,412 ha in 2022, 9,860 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 43,961 ha that had burned before.
- 28,261 ha Yalinga fire, January 2020 353,408 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 26,102 ha Yalinga fire, January 2022 87,524 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 18,482 ha Yalinga fire, December 2020 261,604 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14,826 ha Yalinga fire, December 2022 108,015 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,679 ha Yalinga fire, December 2018 136,358 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,177 ha Yalinga fire, December 2018 71,520 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,504 ha Yalinga fire, December 2016 17,983 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,953 ha Yalinga fire, December 2016 14,157 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Yalinga where it started44,067 ha reached on 28 Jan1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jan | 34.3 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 29 Jan | 35.3 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 30 Jan | 35.7 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 31 Jan | 35.0 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 1 Feb | 33.9 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 2 Feb | 33.7 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 3 Feb | 34.6 °C | 9 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 4 Feb | 34.8 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 5 Feb | 34.4 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 6 Feb | 33.7 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 7 Feb | 34.6 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 8 Feb | 36.4 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 9 Feb | 37.8 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 10 Feb | 37.9 °C | 12 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Feb | 38.0 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 12 Feb | 38.6 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 13 Feb after | 39.4 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 10 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 15 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 16 Feb after | 36.5 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 17 Feb after | 30.9 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 18 Feb after | 35.7 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 19 Feb after | 37.0 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 20 Feb after | 36.7 °C | 7 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 21 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 7 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
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 · 1,555Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 87,524 haYalinga3 January 2022 · 33 days · 21 km away
- 979,715 haYalinga24 December 2020 · 74 days · 23 km away
- 109,809 haYalinga16 December 2018 · 48 days · 27 km away
- 108,015 haYalinga24 December 2022 · 36 days · 34 km away
- 128,837 haYalinga20 January 2022 · 34 days · 36 km away
- 353,408 haYalinga1 January 2020 · 52 days · 38 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 28 January 2024 to 12 February 2024 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 January 2024 to 11 February 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 43,797 hectares (438.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Yalinga (44,067 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.