How long did the Ibba fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 December 2025 and 20 December 2025: 17 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 14,576 hectares (145.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ibba (9,477 ha, 1.0 %); Yambio (5,187 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class 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.

SS · South Sudan · 2025-12-04 → 2025-12-20

Ibba fire, 4 December 2025 Ibba, Yambio

Out · last detection 21 Dec 2025, 12:07 UTC

The fire started on 4 December 2025 in Ibba, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,576 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 83th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 74 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Burnt area: 14,576ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 4 Dec 2025 – 20 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit: 2; counties
Started on: 4 Dec; 2025
Heat detections: 426; in a single hotspot: 161 MW
Danger at start: 27; High · FWI index
Energy released: 3.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 21 Dec 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Dec20 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

46781112131415161718192021

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

40km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,067 ha in 2016, 1,293 ha in 2017, 1,135 ha in 2018, 1,497 ha in 2019, 2,372 ha in 2020, 932 ha in 2021, 4,874 ha in 2023, 1,402 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,799 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Ibba where it started

9,477 ha reached on 27 Nov

1.0 %
Yambio

5,187 ha reached on 27 Nov

0.6 %

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)
4 Dec	34.5 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
5 Dec	32.7 °C	36 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
6 Dec	33.8 °C	30 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
7 Dec	33.8 °C	33 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
8 Dec	34.7 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 25
9 Dec	32.7 °C	37 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
10 Dec	30.2 °C	48 %	34 km/h	2.2 mm	Low 6
11 Dec	33.3 °C	28 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
12 Dec	32.2 °C	27 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
13 Dec	30.9 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
14 Dec	33.1 °C	26 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
15 Dec	30.2 °C	43 %	40 km/h	2.6 mm	Low 8
16 Dec	31.6 °C	26 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
17 Dec	32.0 °C	24 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
18 Dec	31.6 °C	22 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
19 Dec	31.5 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
20 Dec	32.5 °C	26 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
21 Dec after	32.5 °C	27 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
22 Dec after	31.2 °C	39 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
23 Dec after	32.4 °C	42 %	31 km/h	0.1 mm	High 23
24 Dec after	32.7 °C	33 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
25 Dec after	32.8 °C	30 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
26 Dec after	32.6 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
27 Dec after	33.1 °C	31 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
28 Dec after	31.6 °C	23 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
29 Dec after	29.6 °C	41 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
30 Dec after	31.0 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 27 Nov 2025

After · 27 Dec 2025

Before After

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 22 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 103 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak103 µg/m³

Days over the guideline22 days

PM10107 µg/m³

Optical depth0.83

WHO 15

234567891011121314151617181920212223

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 · 426Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in South Sudan ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ibba fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 December 2025 and 20 December 2025: 17 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 14,576 hectares (145.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ibba (9,477 ha, 1.0 %); Yambio (5,187 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned