Nwoya fire, 10 January 2019 Nwoya
The fire started on 10 January 2019 in Nwoya, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,460 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 34th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 3 in Uganda in 2019, of 105.
- Burnt area
- 5,460ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 10 Jan 2019 – 14 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 10 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 164
- in a single hotspot: 125 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 16 Jan.
This area had burned before
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,971 ha in 2016, 2,424 ha in 2017, 138 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,166 ha that had burned before.
- 1,754 ha Nwoya fire, December 2017 4,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,599 ha Nwoya fire, December 2016 3,330 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,433 ha Nwoya fire, January 2016 2,446 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 661 ha Nwoya fire, January 2017 6,314 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 572 ha Nwoya fire, January 2016 1,512 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 290 ha Nwoya fire, January 2016 1,108 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 138 ha Nwoya fire, December 2018 1,267 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 78 ha Nwoya fire, January 2016 10,951 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Nwoya where it started5,497 ha reached on 9 Jan1.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Jan | 35.0 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Jan | 35.6 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 12 Jan | 36.6 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Jan | 36.4 °C | 9 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Jan | 35.8 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Jan after | 33.2 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Jan after | 31.0 °C | 44 % | 28 km/h | 3.0 mm | Low 7 |
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.
Detections table · 164Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,951 haNwoya28 January 2016 · 18 days · 13 km away
- 16,324 haNwoya6 January 2026 · 17 days · 16 km away
- 13,858 haKibanda9 February 2016 · 7 days · 22 km away
- 41,220 haKibanda2 January 2017 · 15 days · 27 km away
- 10,795 haBuliisa6 January 2019 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 9,718 haBuliisa3 January 2026 · 17 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nwoya fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 January 2019 and 14 January 2019: 5 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 5,460 hectares (54.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nwoya (5,497 ha, 1.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 33 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
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.