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Ibba fire, 15 December 2025 Yambio, Ibba

Out · last detection 22 Jan 2026, 23:05 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2025 in Ibba, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 99,647 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 9 in South Sudan in 2025, of 292.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Yambio · 2018Ibba · 2016Ibba · 2019Ibba · 2024

Burnt area
99,647ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
15 Dec 2025 – 21 Jan 2026
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
15 Dec
2025
Heat detections
3,575
in a single hotspot: 198 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
877MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec21 Jan
22 Jan 2026

How it evolved, day by day

15 Dec 2025 · 431 MW · 30 16 Dec 2025 · 506 MW · 32 17 Dec 2025 · 143 MW · 31 18 Dec 2025 · 237 MW · 35 19 Dec 2025 · 364 MW · 28 20 Dec 2025 · 1,176 MW · 60 21 Dec 2025 · 249 MW · 34 22 Dec 2025 · 723 MW · 46 23 Dec 2025 · 3 MW · 1 24 Dec 2025 · 90 MW · 10 25 Dec 2025 · 292 MW · 36 26 Dec 2025 · 229 MW · 31 27 Dec 2025 · 1,319 MW · 77 28 Dec 2025 · 148 MW · 14 29 Dec 2025 · 36 MW · 7 30 Dec 2025 · 599 MW · 103 31 Dec 2025 · 179 MW · 20 1 Jan 2026 · 3,156 MW · 186 2 Jan 2026 · 4,080 MW · 204 3 Jan 2026 · 1,507 MW · 148 4 Jan 2026 · 2,475 MW · 244 5 Jan 2026 · 1,383 MW · 99 6 Jan 2026 · 1,522 MW · 131 7 Jan 2026 · 2,065 MW · 140 8 Jan 2026 · 1,322 MW · 149 9 Jan 2026 · 383 MW · 96 10 Jan 2026 · 29 MW · 25 11 Jan 2026 · 120 MW · 41 12 Jan 2026 · 203 MW · 35 13 Jan 2026 · 487 MW · 70 14 Jan 2026 · 2,954 MW · 339 15 Jan 2026 · 3,208 MW · 410 16 Jan 2026 · 325 MW · 74 17 Jan 2026 · 582 MW · 99 18 Jan 2026 · 768 MW · 95 19 Jan 2026 · 507 MW · 102 20 Jan 2026 · 255 MW · 69 21 Jan 2026 · 0 MW · 1 22 Jan 2026 · 130 MW · 41
15 Dec 21 Dec 27 Dec 2 Jan 8 Jan 14 Jan 20 Jan

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
43km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 62,554 ha in 2016, 50,871 ha in 2017, 51,094 ha in 2018, 7,933 ha in 2019, 56,027 ha in 2020, 20,518 ha in 2021, 22,255 ha in 2022, 24,456 ha in 2023, 42,291 ha in 2024, 14,982 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 97,503 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 63% of the area of London (996 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Yambio
    72,633 ha reached on 12 Dec
    8.2 %
  2. Ibba where it started
    27,716 ha reached on 8 Dec
    2.9 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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 Dec 30.7 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
16 Dec 31.8 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Dec 32.9 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Dec 32.1 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Dec 32.3 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Dec 33.3 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Dec 33.5 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Dec 31.9 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Dec 33.2 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Dec 34.0 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Dec 34.1 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Dec 33.4 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Dec 35.3 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Dec 32.8 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Dec 31.6 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Dec 32.2 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Dec 32.7 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Jan 34.1 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Jan 34.8 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Jan 34.8 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Jan 35.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Jan 35.1 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Jan 35.0 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jan 35.9 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Jan 36.5 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Jan 35.7 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Jan 34.1 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Jan 34.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Jan 35.5 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jan 35.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jan 34.7 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Jan 34.5 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Jan 33.8 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Jan 35.1 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jan 35.5 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Jan 35.6 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Jan 36.2 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jan 34.4 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Jan after 36.7 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Jan after 36.7 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Jan after 36.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jan after 37.7 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Jan after 36.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Jan after 36.3 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Jan after 34.9 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Jan after 35.6 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Jan after 36.5 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Jan after 36.2 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2025
After · 28 Jan 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 5 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 194 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 113: 7.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak194 µg/m³
Days over the guideline43 days
PM10202 µg/m³
Optical depth1.16
13141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324
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 · 3,575Every 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 December 2025 and 21 January 2026: 38 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 99,647 hectares (996.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yambio (72,633 ha, 8.2 %); Ibba (27,716 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3,575 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.