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Dodoth fire, 4 January 2017 Dodoth, Chua

Out · last detection 7 Jan 2017, 23:12 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2017 in Dodoth, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,824 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 69th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 13 in Uganda in 2017, of 244.

Burnt area
3,824ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
4 Jan 2017 – 7 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
2
counties
Started on
4 Jan
2017
Heat detections
80
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
656MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan7 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

4567

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
45km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,619 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Dodoth where it started
    2,416 ha reached on 4 Jan
    0.3 %
  2. Chua
    87 ha reached on 6 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
4 Jan 28.1 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Jan 27.5 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Jan 28.0 °C 9 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Jan 28.4 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Jan after 28.2 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Jan after 27.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Jan after 27.7 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Jan after 27.7 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Jan after 27.3 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Jan after 27.9 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Jan after 27.6 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jan after 28.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Jan after 28.6 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jan after 28.1 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Dec 2016
After · 14 Jan 2017

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 · 80Every 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 4 January 2017 and 7 January 2017: 4 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 3,824 hectares (38.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dodoth (2,416 ha, 0.3 %); Chua (87 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 45 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.