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Kibanda fire, 1 January 2017 Kibanda

Out · last detection 12 Jan 2017, 23:19 UTC

The fire started on 1 January 2017 in Kibanda, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,453 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Western Region since 2016 (of 255 with a page). Number 7 in Uganda in 2017, of 244.

Burnt area
5,453ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
1 Jan 2017 – 11 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
1 Jan
2017
Heat detections
168
in a single hotspot: 292 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jan11 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

123456789101112

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
52km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Kibanda where it started
    5,490 ha reached on 27 Dec
    1.5 %

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 33.6 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Jan 32.7 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Jan 32.7 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Jan 33.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Jan 35.1 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Jan 35.3 °C 5 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Jan 35.7 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Jan 34.0 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Jan 33.8 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Jan 34.3 °C 14 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Jan 34.6 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jan after 34.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Jan after 34.4 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Jan after 34.3 °C 12 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Jan after 35.5 °C 12 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jan after 35.9 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Jan after 36.4 °C 6 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Jan after 35.7 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Jan after 35.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Jan after 35.0 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Jan after 35.3 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Dec 2016
After · 18 Jan 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 168Every 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 Uganda ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kibanda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 January 2017 and 11 January 2017: 11 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 5,453 hectares (54.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kibanda (5,490 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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

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?

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.