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Kibanda fire, 2 January 2017 Kibanda, Buliisa

Out · last detection 16 Jan 2017, 00:03 UTC

The fire started on 2 January 2017 in Kibanda, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 41,220 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Western Region since 2016 (of 255 with a page). The largest in Uganda in 2017, of 244.

Burnt area
41,220ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
2 Jan 2017 – 16 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
2 Jan
2017
Heat detections
1,136
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
12.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jan16 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

234568910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
47km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18,143 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kibanda where it started
    35,760 ha
    10.0 %
  2. Buliisa
    5,743 ha
    2.5 %

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)
2 Jan 35.0 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Jan 34.2 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Jan 35.8 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Jan 37.6 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Jan 37.9 °C 5 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Jan 37.8 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Jan 36.1 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Jan 35.6 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Jan 36.2 °C 14 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 Jan 37.0 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Jan 36.6 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Jan 36.8 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Jan 36.6 °C 12 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Jan 37.4 °C 13 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Jan 38.4 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jan after 39.1 °C 5 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Jan after 38.3 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Jan after 37.2 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Jan after 37.1 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jan after 37.3 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Jan after 37.6 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Jan after 38.6 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Jan after 38.3 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Jan after 37.6 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jan after 37.5 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Dec 2016
After · 23 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 · 0Every 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 2 January 2017 and 16 January 2017: 15 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 41,220 hectares (412.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kibanda (35,760 ha, 10.0 %); Buliisa (5,743 ha, 2.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 47 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 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.

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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.