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Buruuli fire, 16 January 2017 Buruuli

Out · last detection 19 Jan 2017, 11:48 UTC

The fire started on 16 January 2017 in Buruuli, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,768 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 36th largest in Western Region since 2016 (of 255 with a page). Number 33 in Uganda in 2017, of 244.

Burnt area
2,768ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
16 Jan 2017 – 19 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
16 Jan
2017
Heat detections
71
in a single hotspot: 244 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jan19 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

16171819

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
41km/h · peak gust
5%lowest humidity

It had gone 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 28 Jan.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Buruuli where it started
    2,788 ha reached on 16 Jan
    1.4 %

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)
16 Jan 36.2 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Jan 37.1 °C 5 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jan 36.2 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Jan 35.2 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Jan after 35.2 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Jan after 35.3 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jan after 35.4 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Jan after 36.5 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Jan after 36.5 °C 9 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Jan after 35.6 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Jan after 35.2 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 48
27 Jan after 34.0 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
28 Jan after 31.9 °C 31 % 31 km/h 3.0 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jan 2017
After · 26 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 · 71Every 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 Buruuli fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 January 2017 and 19 January 2017: 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 2,768 hectares (27.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Buruuli (2,788 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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.