Kibanda fire, 24 January 2020 Kibanda
The fire started on 24 January 2020 in Kibanda, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,176 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 180th largest in Western Region since 2016 (of 255 with a page). Number 116 in Uganda in 2020, of 170.
- Burnt area
- 1,176ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 24 Jan 2020 – 26 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 24 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 29
- in a single hotspot: 31 MW
- Energy released
- 388MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 254 ha in 2016, 906 ha in 2017, 947 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,167 ha that had burned before.
- 947 ha Kibanda fire, January 2018 3,576 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 906 ha Kibanda fire, January 2017 41,220 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 254 ha Kibanda fire, February 2016 1,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kibanda where it started1,184 ha reached on 24 Jan0.3 %
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.
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.
Detections table · 29Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 41,220 haKibanda2 January 2017 · 15 days · 8 km away
- 13,858 haKibanda9 February 2016 · 7 days · 13 km away
- 10,795 haBuliisa6 January 2019 · 9 days · 26 km away
- 7,394 haBuliisa4 January 2018 · 3 days · 26 km away
- 9,055 haBuliisa15 December 2016 · 16 days · 33 km away
- 9,718 haBuliisa3 January 2026 · 17 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kibanda fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2020 and 26 January 2020: 3 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 1,176 hectares (11.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kibanda (1,184 ha, 0.3 %).
- 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
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.