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Dodoth fire, 14 February 2016 Dodoth

Out · last detection 21 Feb 2016, 10:53 UTC

The fire started on 14 February 2016 in Dodoth, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,133 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 109th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 23 in Uganda in 2016, of 269.

Burnt area
3,133ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
14 Feb 2016 – 21 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
14 Feb
2016
Heat detections
74
in a single hotspot: 63 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
617MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Feb21 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
44km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 26 Feb.

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
    3,154 ha reached on 11 Feb
    0.4 %

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)
14 Feb 27.6 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Feb 30.6 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Feb 30.7 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Feb 31.0 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Feb 29.0 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Feb 30.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Feb 29.6 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Feb 30.0 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Feb after 30.5 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Feb after 30.0 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Feb after 30.9 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Feb after 29.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Feb after 29.2 °C 32 % 42 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Feb 2016
After · 28 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 · 74Every 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 14 February 2016 and 21 February 2016: 8 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 3,133 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dodoth (3,154 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.