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Nwoya fire, 20 December 2016 Nwoya

Out · last detection 25 Dec 2016, 11:17 UTC

The fire started on 20 December 2016 in Nwoya, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,524 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 76th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 13 in Uganda in 2016, of 269.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,524ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
20 Dec 2016 – 25 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
20 Dec
2016
Heat detections
90
in a single hotspot: 30 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
346MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Dec25 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2022232425

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
57km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 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. Nwoya where it started
    3,547 ha reached on 18 Dec
    0.8 %

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 35.2 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Dec 33.9 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Dec 35.1 °C 24 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Dec 35.5 °C 16 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Dec 36.0 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Dec 35.6 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Dec after 36.1 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Dec after 35.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Dec after 35.7 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Dec after 35.2 °C 17 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Dec after 34.6 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
31 Dec after 34.1 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Jan after 35.7 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jan after 35.1 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Jan after 35.1 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Jan after 35.7 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Dec 2016
After · 1 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 · 90Every 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 Nwoya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 December 2016 and 25 December 2016: 6 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 3,524 hectares (35.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nwoya (3,547 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.