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Nwoya fire, 19 December 2017 Nwoya

Out · last detection 25 Dec 2017, 10:33 UTC

The fire started on 19 December 2017 in Nwoya, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,493 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 48th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 10 in Uganda in 2017, of 244.

Burnt area
4,493ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Dec 2017 – 25 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
19 Dec
2017
Heat detections
149
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
978MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Dec25 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425

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
42km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,354 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,788 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Nwoya where it started
    4,523 ha reached on 13 Dec
    1.1 %

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)
19 Dec 34.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Dec 35.4 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Dec 36.2 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Dec 35.7 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Dec 34.9 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Dec 35.7 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Dec 35.4 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Dec after 35.0 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Dec after 34.8 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Dec after 36.0 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Dec after 35.6 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Dec after 35.2 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Dec after 33.6 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Jan after 33.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Jan after 32.8 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Jan after 33.3 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Jan after 33.2 °C 18 % 36 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 · 12 Dec 2017
After · 1 Jan 2018

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 · 149Every 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 19 December 2017 and 25 December 2017: 7 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 4,493 hectares (44.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nwoya (4,523 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.