Dodoth fire, 19 January 2021 Dodoth
The fire started on 19 January 2021 in Dodoth, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,500 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 3 in Uganda in 2021, of 141.
- Burnt area
- 6,500ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 19 Jan 2021 – 22 Jan 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 19 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 191
- in a single hotspot: 259 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.3GW
- 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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,213 ha in 2016, 345 ha in 2019.
- 1,710 ha Dodoth fire, November 2016 2,869 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 503 ha Dodoth fire, November 2016 1,559 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 345 ha Dodoth fire, January 2019 1,674 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dodoth where it started6,545 ha reached on 19 Jan0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jan | 30.5 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Jan | 32.0 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Jan | 31.9 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Jan | 30.2 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 23 Jan after | 29.5 °C | 40 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 24 Jan after | 30.3 °C | 36 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Jan after | 30.7 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 26 Jan after | 31.7 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Jan after | 32.0 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Jan after | 31.7 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Jan after | 31.8 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 30 Jan after | 32.2 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 31 Jan after | 31.8 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Feb after | 31.1 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 · 191Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,317 haDodoth1 March 2021 · 5 days · 9 km away
- 4,530 haDodoth4 January 2026 · 7 days · 12 km away
- 6,150 haDodoth12 December 2020 · 10 days · 28 km away
- 5,983 haDodoth26 November 2025 · 11 days · 29 km away
- 4,600 haDodoth4 January 2026 · 7 days · 31 km away
- 5,585 haChua9 December 2021 · 6 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dodoth fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2021 and 22 January 2021: 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 6,500 hectares (65.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dodoth (6,545 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.