Aruu fire, November 2025 Aruu, Lamwo
The fire started on 27 November 2025 in Aruu, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,962 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 63th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 16 in Uganda in 2025, of 226.
- Burnt area
- 3,962ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 27 Nov 2025 – 4 Dec 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 27 Nov
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 127
- in a single hotspot: 66 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 880MW
- 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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 13 Dec.
This area had burned before
51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 120 ha in 2016, 861 ha in 2017, 984 ha in 2020, 438 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,023 ha that had burned before.
- 984 ha Aruu fire, January 2020 3,316 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 802 ha Aruu fire, December 2017 2,140 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 438 ha Lamwo fire, December 2023 1,011 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 120 ha Aruu fire, December 2016 1,247 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 59 ha Lamwo fire, December 2017 1,893 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Aruu where it started2,772 ha reached on 21 Nov0.9 %
-
1,217 ha reached on 21 Nov0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Nov | 33.4 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 28 Nov | 33.8 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Nov | 34.4 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Nov | 35.2 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Dec | 35.5 °C | 22 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Dec | 36.4 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Dec | 35.8 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Dec | 35.9 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Dec after | 35.3 °C | 26 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Dec after | 34.7 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Dec after | 35.2 °C | 28 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Dec after | 35.2 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 9 Dec after | 35.1 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Dec after | 33.1 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Dec after | 33.7 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 12 Dec after | 31.4 °C | 42 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Dec after | 29.8 °C | 45 % | 27 km/h | 3.2 mm | Very low 4 |
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 5 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 33 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 · 127Every 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 Aruu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 November 2025 and 4 December 2025: 8 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 3,962 hectares (39.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Aruu (2,772 ha, 0.9 %); Lamwo (1,217 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.