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Dodoth fire, 8 February 2016 Dodoth

Out · last detection 12 Feb 2016, 12:03 UTC

The fire started on 8 February 2016 in Dodoth, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,242 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 99th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 21 in Uganda in 2016, of 269.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.9 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
3,242ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
8 Feb 2016 – 12 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
8 Feb
2016
Heat detections
56
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
220MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Feb12 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

9101112

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
41km/h · peak gust
14%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. Dodoth where it started
    1,614 ha reached on 5 Feb
    0.2 %

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)
8 Feb 34.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Feb 34.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Feb 32.7 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Feb 31.5 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Feb 32.6 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Feb after 33.3 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Feb after 33.0 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Feb after 33.6 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Feb after 33.4 °C 22 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Feb after 34.4 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Feb after 32.7 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Feb after 33.3 °C 25 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Feb after 32.1 °C 25 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Feb after 32.1 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Feb after 33.3 °C 19 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Feb 2016
After · 19 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 · 56Every 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 Dodoth fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 February 2016 and 12 February 2016: 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 3,242 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dodoth (1,614 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

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.