Burned area
satellite only3,409ha
Union of 2 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 19 Dec 2016 – 3 Jan 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
UG · Uganda · –
West Moyo fire, 19 December 2016 West Moyo, Obongi
Out · last detection 4 Jan 2017, 11:30 UTC
The fire started on 19 December 2016 in West Moyo, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,409 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 54th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1003 with a page). Number 15 in Uganda in 2016, of 269.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-05matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only16days
19 Dec 2016 to 3 Jan 2017: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 4 Jan 2017, 11:30 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only19 Dec 2016
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 19 Dec 2016
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only114
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 108 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 19 Dec 2016 – 3 Jan 2017
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only346MW
Total radiative power on 27 December 2016; hotspots that day: 21.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 27 Dec 2016
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model30.8FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 15.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 19 Dec 2016, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.8°C · 13% RH
High of 36.8 °C and minimum humidity of 13% on 29 December 2016; gusts of 53 km/h on 22 December 2016.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 19 Dec 2016 – 3 Jan 2017
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 250people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 1.9 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2015).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logArea: 3,492 → 3,409 ha.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 30 December 2016 → 3 January 2017.
-
logStart date: 21 December 2016 → 19 December 2016.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/west-moyo-2016-12-3?v=2026-11-05A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire west-moyo-2016-12-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-12-19 | 4 | 38 | 35.1 | 23 | 20 | 12.3 | 30.6 | 0 | 30.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-20 | 2 | 81 | 35.6 | 23.3 | 19 | 12 | 30.2 | 0 | 32.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-21 | 14 | 79 | 34.1 | 23.3 | 25 | 11.5 | 28.1 | 0 | 32.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-22 | 2 | 4 | 34.8 | 23.7 | 26 | 17.7 | 52.6 | 0 | 38.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-23 | 24 | 267 | 35.9 | 22.5 | 19 | 19.7 | 46.1 | 0 | 41.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-24 | 8 | 65 | 36.4 | 22.8 | 18 | 16.2 | 39.2 | 0 | 39.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-25 | 0 | 0 | 35.6 | 22.6 | 22 | 15.1 | 36.7 | 0 | 39.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-26 | 3 | 4 | 35.1 | 23.5 | 21 | 16.2 | 45.7 | 0 | 41 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-27 | 21 | 346 | 35.4 | 21.3 | 14 | 11.8 | 25.9 | 0 | 39.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-28 | 11 | 25 | 35.2 | 21 | 15 | 12.8 | 22.7 | 0 | 40.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-29 | 8 | 44 | 36.8 | 24.7 | 13 | 12.8 | 24.8 | 0 | 43 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-30 | 7 | 28 | 35.3 | 24.5 | 21 | 11.3 | 22.7 | 0 | 40.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-12-31 | 4 | 75 | 34.4 | 24.6 | 26 | 11.6 | 29.2 | 0 | 37.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-01-01 | 3 | 6 | 36.1 | 23.5 | 16 | 10.5 | 29.5 | 0 | 39 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-01-02 | 0 | 0 | 35.2 | 21.6 | 19 | 8.8 | 29.5 | 0 | 37.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-01-03 | 1 | 1 | 34.9 | 22.1 | 21 | 11.1 | 31.7 | 0 | 40.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2017-01-04 | 2 | 9 | 36.1 | 23 | 15 | 11.7 | 29.2 | 0 | 42 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2017-01-05 | 0 | 0 | 36.3 | 22.5 | 11 | 13 | 33.8 | 0 | 46.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2017-01-06 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 21.8 | 9 | 14.4 | 38.2 | 0 | 51.2 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-01-07 | 0 | 0 | 36.7 | 20.8 | 10 | 12.1 | 27.7 | 0 | 49 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2017-01-08 | 0 | 0 | 36.8 | 21.9 | 12 | 11.9 | 28.1 | 0 | 49.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2017-01-09 | 0 | 0 | 36.1 | 21.6 | 12 | 13 | 33.8 | 0 | 51 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-01-10 | 0 | 0 | 36.2 | 21.9 | 12 | 12.1 | 30.6 | 0 | 50.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-01-11 | 0 | 0 | 36.6 | 23.1 | 10 | 11.4 | 30.2 | 0 | 50 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-01-12 | 0 | 0 | 36.3 | 22.5 | 13 | 13 | 33.8 | 0 | 52.3 | extremo | 0 |
| 2017-01-13 | 0 | 0 | 36.4 | 21.9 | 12 | 12.5 | 34.6 | 0 | 52.1 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 3,409ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 19 Dec 2016 – 3 Jan 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 19 Dec
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 114
- in a single hotspot: 108 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 71MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
19 Dec3 Jan
4 Jan 2017
How it evolved, day by day
19 Dec
22 Dec
27 Dec
1 Jan
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
37°high
53km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity
It had gone 15 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
West Moyo where it started2,720 ha reached on 19 Dec2.8 %
-
796 ha reached on 21 Dec1.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Built-up area1.9 ha
Residents≈ 250
Inside the perimeter there were about 1.9 hectares of built-up land and about 250 residents (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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 | 35.1 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Dec | 35.6 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Dec | 34.1 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Dec | 34.8 °C | 26 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 23 Dec | 35.9 °C | 19 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Dec | 36.4 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Dec | 35.6 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Dec | 35.1 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Dec | 35.4 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Dec | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Dec | 36.8 °C | 13 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 30 Dec | 35.3 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 31 Dec | 34.4 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 1 Jan | 36.1 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Jan | 35.2 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Jan | 34.9 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Jan after | 36.7 °C | 10 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 9 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 10 Jan after | 36.2 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 11 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 12 Jan after | 36.3 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 12 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 30.8, a minimum humidity of 20% and 15 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 52.
FWI at the start
30.8
Minimum humidity
20 %
Days without rain
15
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · West Moyo fire, 19 December 2016
3,409 ha
16 days
FWI 30.8
Min. humidity 20 %
West Moyo fire, December 2017
1,242 ha
6 days
FWI 30.5
Min. humidity 20 %
28 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
East Moyo fire, January 2023
1,028 ha
3 days
FWI 32.5
Min. humidity 20 %
41 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Lamwo fire, December 2017
2,220 ha
14 days
FWI 30.9
Min. humidity 21 %
142 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
West Moyo fire, December 2017
1,109 ha
9 days
FWI 29.0
Min. humidity 22 %
8 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Madi-Okollo fire, January 2020
1,005 ha
3 days
FWI 30.4
Min. humidity 22 %
103 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.9 mm on 8 Jan.
What happened to them
- 6 days
- median duration
- 1,209 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 5.2 mm
- rain at the end (median; 23 of 52 had it)
It was 2.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 16 days, against 6 days.
Only 7 of its 52 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 29 of 52, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.2 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
53km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 3 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 23 of 52, with a median of 5.2 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 12 Dec 2016
After · 10 Jan 2017
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 114Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the West Moyo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 December 2016 to 3 January 2017 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 December 2016 to 30 December 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,409 hectares (34.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: West Moyo (2,720 ha, 2.8 %); Obongi (796 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 52. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 1,209 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 7 of its 52 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 29 of 52, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.2 mm.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 3 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Area: 3,492 → 3,409 ha.
- Last day with fire: 30 December 2016 → 3 January 2017.
- Start date: 21 December 2016 → 19 December 2016.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 December 2016 to 30 December 2016. 114 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.