Kibanda fire, 15 January 2023 Kibanda
The fire started on 15 January 2023 in Kibanda, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,127 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 198th largest in Western Region since 2016 (of 255 with a page). Number 54 in Uganda in 2023, of 71.
The power measured by the satellite is low (19.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,127ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 15 Jan 2023 – 17 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 15 Jan
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 27
- in a single hotspot: 20 MW
- Energy released
- 153MW
- 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
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 668 ha in 2016, 956 ha in 2017, 444 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,057 ha that had burned before.
- 956 ha Kibanda fire, January 2017 41,220 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 668 ha Kibanda fire, February 2016 13,858 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 444 ha Kibanda fire, February 2021 2,609 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kibanda where it started1,135 ha reached on 15 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 · 27Every 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 · 13 km away
- 13,858 haKibanda9 February 2016 · 7 days · 13 km away
- 10,795 haBuliisa6 January 2019 · 9 days · 28 km away
- 10,951 haNwoya28 January 2016 · 18 days · 30 km away
- 7,394 haBuliisa4 January 2018 · 3 days · 30 km away
- 16,324 haNwoya6 January 2026 · 17 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kibanda fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 January 2023 and 17 January 2023: 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 1,127 hectares (11.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kibanda (1,135 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.