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Dodoth fire, 6 December 2021 Dodoth

Out · last detection 10 Dec 2021, 23:01 UTC

The fire started on 6 December 2021 in Dodoth, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,772 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 141th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 18 in Uganda in 2021, of 141.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.4 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
2,772ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
6 Dec 2021 – 10 Dec 2021
Municipalities hit
1
counties
Started on
6 Dec
2021
Heat detections
71
in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
269MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Dec 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Dec10 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

678910

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
57km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 20 Dec.

This area had burned before

48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,343 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Dodoth where it started
    2,792 ha reached on 6 Dec
    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)
6 Dec 28.0 °C 32 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Dec 28.9 °C 29 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Dec 28.3 °C 33 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Dec 28.2 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Dec 28.7 °C 31 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Dec after 28.3 °C 22 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Dec after 28.3 °C 20 % 72 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Dec after 28.5 °C 28 % 67 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Dec after 29.0 °C 32 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Dec after 28.9 °C 32 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Dec after 28.5 °C 32 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Dec after 29.0 °C 31 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Dec after 29.6 °C 30 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Dec after 28.6 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Dec after 28.1 °C 41 % 55 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Nov 2021
After · 17 Dec 2021

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 · 71Every 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 6 December 2021 and 10 December 2021: 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 2,772 hectares (27.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Dodoth (2,792 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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
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.