Buliisa fire, 20 December 2018 Buliisa
The fire started on 20 December 2018 in Buliisa, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,774 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 33th largest in Western Region since 2016 (of 255 with a page). Number 5 in Uganda in 2018, of 82.
- Burnt area
- 2,774ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 20 Dec 2018 – 23 Dec 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 20 Dec
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 65
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 126MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.3 mm on 29 Dec.
This area had burned before
60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,425 ha in 2016, 670 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,671 ha that had burned before.
- 733 ha Buliisa fire, February 2016 1,054 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 692 ha Buliisa fire, February 2016 2,002 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 656 ha Buliisa fire, January 2017 2,252 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14 ha Buliisa fire, December 2017 1,080 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Buliisa where it started2,793 ha reached on 16 Dec1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Dec | 29.4 °C | 62 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 21 Dec | 30.2 °C | 53 % | 24 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very low 4 |
| 22 Dec | 32.0 °C | 40 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 23 Dec | 31.5 °C | 40 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 24 Dec after | 30.7 °C | 50 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 25 Dec after | 31.9 °C | 49 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 26 Dec after | 32.4 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 8 |
| 27 Dec after | 33.5 °C | 42 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 28 Dec after | 30.9 °C | 55 % | 28 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 8 |
| 29 Dec after | 30.0 °C | 60 % | 31 km/h | 4.3 mm | Very low 1 |
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.
Detections table · 65Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,055 haBuliisa15 December 2016 · 16 days · 21 km away
- 7,394 haBuliisa4 January 2018 · 3 days · 22 km away
- 9,718 haBuliisa3 January 2026 · 17 days · 24 km away
- 10,795 haBuliisa6 January 2019 · 9 days · 27 km away
- 6,881 haNwoya4 February 2021 · 7 days · 38 km away
- 41,220 haKibanda2 January 2017 · 15 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Buliisa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 December 2018 and 23 December 2018: 4 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 2,774 hectares (27.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Buliisa (2,793 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 7, class Low.
- 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.