Bokora fire, 7 November 2025 Bokora, Pian
The fire started on 7 November 2025 in Bokora, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,167 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 2 in Uganda in 2025, of 226.
- Burnt area
- 14,167ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 25days
- 7 Nov 2025 – 1 Dec 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 7 Nov
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 297
- in a single hotspot: 95 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.5GW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,449 ha in 2017, 1,281 ha in 2020, 1,059 ha in 2021, 282 ha in 2022, 53 ha in 2024.
- 1,136 ha Bokora fire, November 2020 1,698 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,059 ha Bokora fire, November 2021 1,005 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 842 ha Bokora fire, December 2017 1,373 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 608 ha Bokora fire, December 2017 1,498 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 282 ha Bokora fire, November 2022 2,567 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 145 ha Bokora fire, December 2020 1,857 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 53 ha Bokora fire, December 2024 1,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bokora where it started14,226 ha reached on 2 Nov2.8 %
-
34 ha reached on 18 Nov0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Nov | 31.2 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 8 Nov | 29.7 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 9 Nov | 31.4 °C | 34 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 10 Nov | 31.5 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 11 Nov | 32.7 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 12 Nov | 33.2 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 13 Nov | 31.6 °C | 31 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 14 Nov | 31.7 °C | 30 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Nov | 32.6 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Nov | 33.2 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Nov | 31.2 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 18 Nov | 30.9 °C | 32 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Nov | 31.7 °C | 31 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Nov | 31.4 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Nov | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Nov | 32.1 °C | 18 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Nov | 31.7 °C | 25 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Nov | 32.9 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 25 Nov | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Nov | 32.5 °C | 24 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Nov | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Nov | 32.7 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Nov | 33.2 °C | 24 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Nov | 32.1 °C | 20 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 Dec | 32.7 °C | 16 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Dec after | 33.3 °C | 16 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Dec after | 33.2 °C | 22 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Dec after | 32.6 °C | 25 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Dec after | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Dec after | 31.8 °C | 28 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Dec after | 32.3 °C | 25 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Dec after | 32.1 °C | 27 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Dec after | 33.0 °C | 26 % | 49 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 41 |
| 10 Dec after | 32.2 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Dec after | 31.7 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
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 17 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 297Every 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 Bokora fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 November 2025 and 1 December 2025: 25 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 14,167 hectares (141.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bokora (14,226 ha, 2.8 %); Pian (34 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.