Chua fire, 21 November 2025 Chua, Lamwo
The fire started on 21 November 2025 in Chua, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,805 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 29th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 10 in Uganda in 2025, of 226.
- Burnt area
- 5,805ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 21 Nov 2025 – 5 Dec 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 21 Nov
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 141
- in a single hotspot: 59 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 13 Dec.
This area had burned before
18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 63 ha in 2016, 183 ha in 2017, 782 ha in 2020.
- 782 ha Chua fire, January 2020 1,196 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 183 ha Chua fire, January 2017 1,396 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 63 ha Chua fire, January 2016 1,003 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chua where it started5,827 ha reached on 18 Nov1.4 %
-
17 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Nov | 32.5 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 22 Nov | 33.0 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 23 Nov | 32.4 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 24 Nov | 32.2 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 25 Nov | 33.5 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 26 Nov | 32.0 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Nov | 32.0 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Nov | 32.2 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Nov | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Nov | 33.4 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Dec | 33.8 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 2 Dec | 34.3 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Dec | 34.0 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Dec | 33.9 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Dec | 33.4 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Dec after | 32.7 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Dec after | 33.2 °C | 31 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Dec after | 33.0 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 9 Dec after | 33.3 °C | 31 % | 42 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Dec after | 31.2 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 11 Dec after | 31.0 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 12 Dec after | 29.7 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 13 Dec after | 27.8 °C | 48 % | 27 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 5 |
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 6 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 56 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 2.0 times the WHO daily 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 · 141Every 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 Chua fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 November 2025 and 5 December 2025: 15 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 5,805 hectares (58.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chua (5,827 ha, 1.4 %); Lamwo (17 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 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
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.