Kibanda fire, 25 January 2025 Kibanda
The fire started on 25 January 2025 in Kibanda, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,692 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 39th largest in Western Region since 2016 (of 255 with a page). Number 34 in Uganda in 2025, of 226.
- Burnt area
- 2,692ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 25 Jan 2025 – 6 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 25 Jan
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 82
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 749MW
- 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.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,428 ha in 2016, 2,505 ha in 2017, 993 ha in 2018, 183 ha in 2020, 798 ha in 2021, 127 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,705 ha that had burned before.
- 2,505 ha Kibanda fire, January 2017 41,220 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,426 ha Kibanda fire, February 2016 13,858 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 798 ha Kibanda fire, February 2021 2,609 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 749 ha Kibanda fire, January 2018 3,576 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 244 ha Kibanda fire, January 2018 3,703 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 183 ha Kibanda fire, January 2020 1,176 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 127 ha Kibanda fire, February 2023 1,249 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 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 started2,711 ha reached on 25 Jan0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Jan | 32.5 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Jan | 32.9 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Jan | 33.6 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 28 Jan | 33.8 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Jan | 34.1 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 30 Jan | 34.4 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 31 Jan | 33.9 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Feb | 34.6 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Feb | 33.8 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Feb | 35.1 °C | 21 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Feb | 35.9 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Feb | 37.2 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Feb | 37.5 °C | 13 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Feb after | 33.7 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Feb after | 36.0 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Feb after | 33.0 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Feb after | 38.4 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 12 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 14 Feb after | 37.0 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 15 Feb after | 33.6 °C | 35 % | 27 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Feb after | 34.7 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 30 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 83 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 82Every 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 · 9 km away
- 13,858 haKibanda9 February 2016 · 7 days · 12 km away
- 10,795 haBuliisa6 January 2019 · 9 days · 26 km away
- 7,394 haBuliisa4 January 2018 · 3 days · 27 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 25 January 2025 and 6 February 2025: 13 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 2,692 hectares (26.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kibanda (2,711 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
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.