Ibba fire, 22 December 2024 Ibba, Yambio, Wulu
The fire started on 22 December 2024 in Ibba, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,411 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 325th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 149 in South Sudan in 2024, of 180.
- Burnt area
- 5,411ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 22 Dec 2024 – 2 Jan 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- counties
- Started on
- 22 Dec
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 228
- in a single hotspot: 84 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 26 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: 2,823 ha in 2016, 2,387 ha in 2017, 43 ha in 2018, 3,271 ha in 2019, 3,919 ha in 2020, 88 ha in 2021, 5,183 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,412 ha that had burned before.
- 3,524 ha Yambio fire, January 2022 13,861 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,295 ha Ibba fire, December 2019 15,012 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,199 ha Ibba fire, December 2016 5,623 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,482 ha Yambio fire, December 2020 6,457 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 656 ha Yambio fire, December 2017 6,035 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 571 ha Wulu fire, January 2016 7,217 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 510 ha Wulu fire, December 2020 14,368 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 51 ha Yambio fire, December 2016 135,559 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ibba where it started4,431 ha reached on 15 Dec0.5 %
-
599 ha reached on 26 Dec0.1 %
-
422 ha reached on 31 Dec0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Dec | 33.4 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Dec | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Dec | 35.3 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Dec | 34.6 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 26 Dec | 35.0 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Dec | 35.1 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Dec | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Dec | 35.9 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Dec | 35.6 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Dec | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Jan | 33.7 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 Jan | 34.8 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Jan after | 36.9 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Jan after | 37.3 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 13 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Jan after | 34.2 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
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 2 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 83 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 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 · 228Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 135,559 haYambio6 December 2016 · 31 days · 10 km away
- 61,053 haWulu12 December 2016 · 13 days · 24 km away
- 72,650 haIbba25 December 2025 · 26 days · 33 km away
- 99,647 haIbba15 December 2025 · 38 days · 39 km away
- 69,706 haYambio13 December 2018 · 26 days · 39 km away
- 62,632 haYambio2 January 2026 · 16 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ibba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 December 2024 and 2 January 2025: 12 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 5,411 hectares (54.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ibba (4,431 ha, 0.5 %); Yambio (599 ha, 0.1 %); Wulu (422 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
- 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.
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 (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.