Chekwii fire, January 2026 Chekwii, Pian
The fire started on 16 January 2026 in Chekwii, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,871 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 16th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 5 in Uganda in 2026, of 270.
- Burnt area
- 6,871ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 16 Jan 2026 – 24 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 16 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 137
- in a single hotspot: 169 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.7GW
- 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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 216 ha in 2018, 209 ha in 2020, 1,313 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,613 ha that had burned before.
- 641 ha Chekwii fire, February 2025 1,121 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 400 ha Chekwii fire, November 2025 1,757 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 251 ha Pian fire, November 2025 3,845 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 209 ha Chekwii fire, October 2020 1,181 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 171 ha Chekwii fire, December 2018 1,042 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 45 ha Pian fire, October 2018 1,114 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 21 ha Chekwii fire, November 2025 12,725 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chekwii where it started6,830 ha reached on 9 Jan3.0 %
-
87 ha reached on 21 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jan | 37.0 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 17 Jan | 37.3 °C | 11 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Jan | 35.6 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Jan | 35.4 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Jan | 37.0 °C | 15 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Jan | 37.1 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 22 Jan | 35.6 °C | 14 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 23 Jan | 36.3 °C | 12 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 24 Jan | 37.2 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 25 Jan after | 39.5 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 26 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 14 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 45 |
| 28 Jan after | 34.0 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 43 |
| 29 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Jan after | 38.0 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Jan after | 37.6 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Feb after | 33.3 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 46 |
| 2 Feb after | 36.5 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Feb after | 37.0 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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 27 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 137Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,845 haPian11 November 2025 · 8 days · 7 km away
- 3,946 haPian18 August 2026 · 25 days · 11 km away
- 3,232 haPian9 November 2025 · 8 days · 12 km away
- 2,563 haBulambuliAugust 2026 · 19 days · 14 km away
- 12,725 haChekwii4 November 2025 · 27 days · 17 km away
- 3,871 haBulambuliJanuary 2026 · 14 days · 18 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chekwii fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 January 2026 and 24 January 2026: 9 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,871 hectares (68.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chekwii (6,830 ha, 3.0 %); Pian (87 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 49 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 Uganda (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.
Emergency number: 999 · 112
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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.