Yalinga fire, 12 December 2025 Yalinga, Ouandja Kotto
The fire started on 12 December 2025 in Yalinga, Central African Republic, and satellites saw it burning for 42 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 107,239 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:
- 107,665 haOuandja16 December 2025 · 36 days
- 48,896 haYalinga25 December 2025 · 34 days
- 13,802 haYalinga21 December 2025 · 29 days
- 12,791 haAl Radoum24 December 2025 · 20 days
- 10,836 haAl Radoum12 December 2025 · 15 days
- 10,399 haYalinga4 January 2026 · 18 days
- 7,983 haOuandja Kotto7 January 2026 · 20 days
- 6,453 haOuandja Kotto1 January 2026 · 18 days
It is the 17th largest in Haute-Kotto since 2016 (of 372 with a page). Number 6 in Central African Republic in 2025, of 144.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 107,239ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 42days
- 12 Dec 2025 – 22 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 12 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 3,756
- in a single hotspot: 203 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 752MW
- detected power per day, on average
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
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 40,154 ha in 2016, 21,613 ha in 2017, 15,578 ha in 2018, 29,120 ha in 2019, 30,863 ha in 2020, 42,561 ha in 2021, 23,043 ha in 2022, 24,458 ha in 2023, 41,956 ha in 2024, 2,402 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 98,469 ha that had burned before.
- 14,075 ha Yalinga fire, December 2021 15,897 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12,710 ha Yalinga fire, December 2024 16,025 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,294 ha Yalinga fire, December 2021 13,892 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,957 ha Yalinga fire, December 2018 10,090 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,900 ha Yalinga fire, December 2024 11,949 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,150 ha Yalinga fire, December 2023 8,811 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,833 ha Yalinga fire, December 2020 5,391 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,586 ha Yalinga fire, December 2021 5,918 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Yalinga where it started83,921 ha reached on 12 Dec2.0 %
-
5,267 ha reached on 19 Dec0.9 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Dec | 28.4 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Dec | 29.0 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Dec | 29.6 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Dec | 30.9 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Dec | 32.0 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Dec | 32.6 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Dec | 32.0 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Dec | 33.0 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Dec | 33.5 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 26 Dec | 33.3 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 27 Dec | 33.0 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Dec | 32.0 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Dec | 31.1 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 30 Dec | 31.4 °C | 13 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 31 Dec | 31.2 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 1 Jan | 32.0 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Jan | 33.1 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 3 Jan | 32.6 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 4 Jan | 32.6 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 5 Jan | 32.3 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 6 Jan | 31.8 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 7 Jan | 32.0 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 8 Jan | 33.0 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 9 Jan | 33.0 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Jan | 31.3 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Jan | 31.1 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Jan | 31.8 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 13 Jan | 31.1 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Jan | 30.3 °C | 16 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 15 Jan | 29.9 °C | 15 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 16 Jan | 29.6 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Jan | 31.6 °C | 14 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Jan | 32.1 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Jan | 32.2 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 20 Jan | 32.2 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 21 Jan | 33.7 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Jan | 34.9 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Jan after | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 25 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 26 Jan after | 35.2 °C | 12 % | 36 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.
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 · CopernicusOn 11 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 52 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 43: 2.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 3,756Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,025 haYalinga27 December 2024 · 11 days · 8 km away
- 20,838 haAl Radoum7 December 2016 · 13 days · 14 km away
- 15,897 haYalinga16 December 2021 · 13 days · 14 km away
- 24,892 haAl Radoum4 December 2021 · 20 days · 29 km away
- 19,396 haOuandjaJanuary 2016 · 24 days · 35 km away
- 17,599 haAl Radoum1 December 2020 · 24 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 12 December 2025 to 22 January 2026 (42 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 December 2025 to 16 January 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 107,239 hectares (1,072.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yalinga (83,921 ha, 2.0 %); Ouandja Kotto (5,267 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 December 2025 to 16 January 2026. 3,756 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.