Ibba fire, 1 January 2026 Ibba
The fire started on 1 January 2026 in Ibba, South Sudan, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,525 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 225th largest in Western Equatoria since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 101 in South Sudan in 2026, of 182.
- Burnt area
- 6,525ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 1 Jan 2026 – 5 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 1 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 157
- in a single hotspot: 93 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.7GW
- 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 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,079 ha in 2016, 3,544 ha in 2017, 5,014 ha in 2018, 2,104 ha in 2020, 4,223 ha in 2021, 2,478 ha in 2024, 653 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,448 ha that had burned before.
- 4,420 ha Ibba fire, December 2018 57,809 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,223 ha Ibba fire, January 2021 12,044 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,247 ha Ibba fire, December 2017 21,208 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 232 ha Ibba fire, January 2024 10,358 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 143 ha Ibba fire, December 2025 14,207 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 141 ha Ibba fire, December 2025 5,155 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ibba where it started6,572 ha reached on 1 Jan0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | 34.8 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Jan | 34.1 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Jan | 35.1 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 4 Jan | 35.6 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Jan | 35.3 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 6 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Jan after | 37.0 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Jan after | 36.2 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 Jan after | 34.4 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 11 Jan after | 35.0 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 14 Jan after | 34.8 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
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 2026 the air beside the fire reached 120 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 79: 5.3 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 · 157Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ibba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 January 2026 and 5 January 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 6,525 hectares (65.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ibba (6,572 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.