Labwor fire, 26 August 2026 Labwor
The fire started on 26 August 2026 in Labwor, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,667 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 416th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 82 in Uganda in 2026, of 270.
- Burnt area
- 1,667ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 26 Aug 2026 – 1 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 26 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 22
- in a single hotspot: 62 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 331MW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 703 ha in 2016, 12 ha in 2021, 457 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 976 ha that had burned before.
- 703 ha Labwor fire, November 2016 2,453 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 264 ha Labwor fire, November 2025 1,129 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 192 ha Labwor fire, November 2025 1,791 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12 ha Labwor fire, December 2021 1,018 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Labwor where it started1,679 ha reached on 26 Aug0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Aug | 34.8 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Aug | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Aug | 34.2 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 29 Aug | 35.2 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Aug | 33.8 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Aug | 34.2 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 Sept | 33.8 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Sept after | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Sept after | 34.6 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Sept after | 35.0 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Sept after | 35.0 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 8 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 9 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
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 4 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 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 · 22Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Labwor fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 August 2026 to 1 September 2026 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 August 2026 to 1 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,667 hectares (16.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Labwor (1,679 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.