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Buliisa fire, 15 December 2016 Buliisa

Out · last detection 30 Dec 2016, 11:24 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2016 in Buliisa, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,055 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 5th largest in Western Region since 2016 (of 255 with a page). Number 3 in Uganda in 2016, of 269.

Burnt area
9,055ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
15 Dec 2016 – 30 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
15 Dec
2016
Heat detections
323
in a single hotspot: 74 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec30 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
37km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 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. Buliisa where it started
    9,117 ha reached on 13 Dec
    4.0 %

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)
13 Dec 31.8 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
14 Dec 32.7 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
15 Dec 30.4 °C 48 % 26 km/h 1.0 mm Low 8
16 Dec 31.7 °C 41 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
17 Dec 33.2 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
18 Dec 34.6 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Dec 35.5 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Dec 34.4 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Dec 34.4 °C 25 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Dec 36.7 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Dec 37.2 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Dec 37.5 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Dec 37.3 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Dec 36.6 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Dec 36.3 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Dec 34.9 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Dec 34.9 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Dec 34.5 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Dec after 34.0 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
1 Jan after 34.4 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Jan after 34.9 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Jan after 33.3 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Jan after 35.1 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Jan after 37.8 °C 10 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Jan after 38.3 °C 5 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Jan after 36.9 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Jan after 35.9 °C 16 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Jan after 35.3 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Jan after 35.9 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2016
After · 6 Jan 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 · 323Every 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 Buliisa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 December 2016 and 30 December 2016: 16 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 9,055 hectares (90.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Buliisa (9,117 ha, 4.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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
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.