How long did the Jie fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 August 2026 to 11 September 2026 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2026 to 8 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,751 hectares (77.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Jie (7,802 ha, 2.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Uganda (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

UG · Uganda · 2026-08-22 → 2026-09-11

Jie fire, 22 August 2026 Jie

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2026, 11:23 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2026 in Jie, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,751 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 12th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 4 in Uganda in 2026, of 270.

Burnt area: 7,751ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 21days; 22 Aug 2026 – 11 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; counties
Started on: 22 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 174; in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 11 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

22232425262728293031123456781011

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

40km/h · peak gust

13%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 235 ha in 2016, 285 ha in 2020, 2,366 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

Jie where it started

7,802 ha reached on 22 Aug

2.0 %

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 Aug	34.5 °C	20 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
23 Aug	32.7 °C	25 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
24 Aug	35.0 °C	15 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
25 Aug	35.5 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 43
26 Aug	35.6 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
27 Aug	35.3 °C	20 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 50
28 Aug	35.0 °C	17 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
29 Aug	35.7 °C	13 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
30 Aug	34.4 °C	18 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
31 Aug	34.6 °C	22 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
1 Sept	34.5 °C	26 %	34 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 46
2 Sept	35.0 °C	20 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
3 Sept	36.2 °C	15 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
4 Sept	35.6 °C	20 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
5 Sept	35.4 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
6 Sept	35.0 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
7 Sept	36.0 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
8 Sept	35.8 °C	19 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
9 Sept	34.5 °C	25 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
10 Sept	33.4 °C	23 %	31 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 45
11 Sept	34.0 °C	22 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
12 Sept after	34.4 °C	23 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
13 Sept after	34.1 °C	25 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
14 Sept after	34.2 °C	22 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
15 Sept after	33.7 °C	27 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
16 Sept after	33.6 °C	24 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
17 Sept after	34.1 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 41
18 Sept after	34.6 °C	20 %	30 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 43
19 Sept after	33.4 °C	25 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
20 Sept after	35.0 °C	16 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
21 Sept after	34.8 °C	23 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 15 Aug 2026

After · 18 Sept 2026

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 7 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 24 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak24 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1034 µg/m³

Optical depth0.40

WHO 15

2021222324252627282930311234567891011121314

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 · 174Every 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 Uganda ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Jie fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 August 2026 to 11 September 2026 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2026 to 8 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,751 hectares (77.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Jie (7,802 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Uganda (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.

Emergency number: 999 · 112

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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 999 · 112.

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 (Public Domain). 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