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Bokora fire, 18 December 2017 Bokora, Labwor

Out · last detection 22 Dec 2017, 11:30 UTC

The fire started on 18 December 2017 in Bokora, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,577 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 73th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 15 in Uganda in 2017, of 244.

Burnt area
3,577ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
18 Dec 2017 – 22 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
18 Dec
2017
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 73 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Dec22 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

18192022

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high
60km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Bokora where it started
    3,092 ha reached on 18 Dec
    0.6 %
  2. Labwor
    510 ha reached on 19 Dec
    0.2 %

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)
18 Dec 31.5 °C 27 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Dec 31.5 °C 25 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Dec 32.2 °C 20 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Dec 32.3 °C 19 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Dec 31.9 °C 18 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Dec after 31.5 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Dec after 32.1 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Dec after 33.5 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Dec after 33.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Dec after 32.4 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Dec after 33.0 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Dec after 32.8 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Dec after 32.8 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Dec after 32.6 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Jan after 31.2 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 11 Dec 2017
After · 29 Dec 2017

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 · 82Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Uganda ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bokora fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 December 2017 and 22 December 2017: 5 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 3,577 hectares (35.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bokora (3,092 ha, 0.6 %); Labwor (510 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 999 · 112.

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.