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Ibba fire, 15 January 2024 Ibba

Out · last detection 23 Jan 2024, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 15 January 2024 in Ibba, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,287 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 86th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 28 in South Sudan in 2024, of 180.

Burnt area
14,287ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
15 Jan 2024 – 22 Jan 2024
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
15 Jan
2024
Heat detections
474
in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jan 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jan22 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223

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
36km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,741 ha in 2016, 3,811 ha in 2017, 220 ha in 2018, 2,456 ha in 2019, 5,760 ha in 2020, 4,816 ha in 2021, 1,991 ha in 2022, 1,878 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,379 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ibba where it started
    14,393 ha reached on 10 Jan
    1.5 %

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)
15 Jan 36.3 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Jan 35.5 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jan 32.5 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Jan 34.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Jan 35.4 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Jan 35.7 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Jan 35.6 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Jan 37.2 °C 9 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Jan after 37.6 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Jan after 38.7 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jan after 37.5 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Jan after 36.6 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jan after 34.8 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Jan after 34.6 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Jan after 35.5 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Jan after 36.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
31 Jan after 36.1 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Feb after 36.6 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jan 2024
After · 29 Jan 2024

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 · 474Every 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 South Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ibba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 January 2024 and 22 January 2024: 8 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 14,287 hectares (142.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ibba (14,393 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Sudan (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 ADM2 (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.