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Chekwii fire, August 2026 Chekwii

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2026, 11:28 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2026 in Chekwii, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,100 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 1106th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 210 in Uganda in 2026, of 270.

Burnt area
1,100ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
11 Aug 2026 – 15 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
11 Aug
2026
Heat detections
17
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
456MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug15 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

111415

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
31km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 68 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

  1. Chekwii where it started
    1,107 ha reached on 11 Aug
    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)
11 Aug 33.7 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Aug 34.4 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Aug 34.6 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
14 Aug 35.4 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Aug 35.2 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Aug after 34.9 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
17 Aug after 34.1 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
18 Aug after 34.1 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
19 Aug after 34.1 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Aug after 31.9 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.8 mm High 26
21 Aug after 33.7 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
22 Aug after 33.0 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Aug after 33.1 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Aug after 35.3 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Aug after 36.4 °C 16 % 26 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.

Before · 4 Aug 2026
After · 22 Aug 2026

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 17 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak44 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1048 µg/m³
Optical depth0.50
9101112131415161718
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 · 17Every 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 Uganda ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chekwii fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 August 2026 and 15 August 2026: 5 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 1,100 hectares (11.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chekwii (1,107 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class High.
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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 999 · 112.

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.