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Kibanda fire, 4 January 2017 Kibanda

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

The fire started on 4 January 2017 in Kibanda, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,871 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 30th largest in Western Region since 2016 (of 255 with a page). Number 29 in Uganda in 2017, of 244.

Burnt area
2,871ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
4 Jan 2017 – 12 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
4 Jan
2017
Heat detections
106
in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
475MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan12 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

4567891012

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
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 106 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kibanda where it started
    2,890 ha reached on 4 Jan
    0.8 %

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)
4 Jan 32.9 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Jan 34.5 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Jan 35.0 °C 7 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Jan 35.5 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jan 33.7 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Jan 33.8 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jan 34.4 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jan 34.7 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Jan 34.2 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jan after 34.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Jan after 34.4 °C 14 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Jan after 35.3 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Jan after 35.5 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jan after 36.2 °C 7 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Jan after 35.3 °C 11 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Jan after 34.9 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Jan after 34.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Jan after 35.2 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Jan after 34.9 °C 18 % 42 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.

Before · 28 Dec 2016
After · 19 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 · 106Every 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 4 January 2017 and 12 January 2017: 9 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 2,871 hectares (28.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kibanda (2,890 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
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.