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Lamwo fire, 5 February 2016 Lamwo

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2016, 11:25 UTC

The fire started on 5 February 2016 in Lamwo, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,303 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 94th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 18 in Uganda in 2016, of 269.

Burnt area
3,303ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
5 Feb 2016 – 13 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
5 Feb
2016
Heat detections
112
in a single hotspot: 201 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Feb13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

5678911121314

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
34km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 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. Lamwo where it started
    3,326 ha reached on 4 Feb
    0.6 %

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)
5 Feb 34.2 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
6 Feb 34.6 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Feb 34.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Feb 33.8 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Feb 33.5 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Feb 33.4 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Feb 33.4 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Feb 34.4 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Feb 34.3 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Feb after 34.1 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Feb after 35.2 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Feb after 35.5 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Feb after 36.2 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Feb after 33.4 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Feb after 36.1 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Feb after 34.6 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Feb after 35.3 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Feb after 36.2 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Feb after 35.8 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jan 2016
After · 20 Feb 2016

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 · 112Every 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 Lamwo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 February 2016 and 13 February 2016: 9 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 3,303 hectares (33.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lamwo (3,326 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.