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Yalinga fire, 29 November 2024 Yalinga, Rafaï

Out · last detection 8 Jan 2025, 12:09 UTC

The fire started on 29 November 2024 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 41 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 53,509 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 30th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 3 in Central African Republic in 2024, of 91.

Burnt area
53,509ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
41days
29 Nov 2024 – 8 Jan 2025
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
29 Nov
2024
Heat detections
1,971
in a single hotspot: 165 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
16.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Jan 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Nov8 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

29301234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

37°high
47km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 21,616 ha in 2016, 43,979 ha in 2017, 6,784 ha in 2018, 29,588 ha in 2019, 79,852 ha in 2020, 1,401 ha in 2021, 13,514 ha in 2022, 13,603 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 53,670 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Yalinga where it started
    40,459 ha reached on 29 Nov
    1.0 %
  2. Rafaï
    13,331 ha reached on 11 Dec
    0.5 %

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)
2 Dec 34.1 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Dec 34.8 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Dec 34.9 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Dec 34.6 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Dec 33.9 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Dec 35.0 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Dec 35.9 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Dec 36.1 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Dec 36.1 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Dec 35.7 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Dec 35.0 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Dec 35.3 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Dec 34.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Dec 35.0 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Dec 35.5 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Dec 36.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Dec 35.5 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Dec 34.9 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Dec 35.5 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Dec 35.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Dec 35.6 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Dec 36.2 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Dec 35.7 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Dec 35.7 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Dec 36.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Dec 36.2 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
28 Dec 36.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
29 Dec 36.7 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Dec 36.2 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Dec 35.3 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Jan 34.5 °C 11 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Jan 34.9 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Jan 35.8 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Jan 37.2 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Jan 37.1 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Jan 36.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Jan 36.0 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Jan 35.1 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Jan after 35.7 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Jan after 36.1 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
11 Jan after 35.7 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
12 Jan after 34.9 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
13 Jan after 35.2 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Jan after 36.0 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Jan after 36.9 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Jan after 37.7 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Jan after 37.6 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Jan after 37.7 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Nov 2024
After · 15 Jan 2025

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 3 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak65 µg/m³
Days over the guideline42 days
PM1081 µg/m³
Optical depth0.79
27282930123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,971Every 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 29 November 2024 to 8 January 2025 (41 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 December 2024 to 8 January 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 53,509 hectares (535.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yalinga (40,459 ha, 1.0 %); Rafaï (13,331 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.