Dodoth fire, 26 November 2025 Dodoth
The fire started on 26 November 2025 in Dodoth, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,983 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 24th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 9 in Uganda in 2025, of 226.
- Burnt area
- 5,983ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 26 Nov 2025 – 6 Dec 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 26 Nov
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 132
- in a single hotspot: 60 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.0GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 18.3 mm on 13 Dec.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 957 ha in 2016, 1,125 ha in 2017, 1,825 ha in 2018, 3,776 ha in 2020, 6 ha in 2021, 496 ha in 2022, 1,000 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,050 ha that had burned before.
- 1,876 ha Dodoth fire, December 2020 6,150 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,127 ha Dodoth fire, January 2020 1,600 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,125 ha Dodoth fire, December 2017 1,465 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,000 ha Dodoth fire, February 2024 1,615 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 957 ha Dodoth fire, February 2016 1,558 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 897 ha Dodoth fire, September 2018 1,711 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 704 ha Dodoth fire, December 2020 1,919 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 626 ha Dodoth fire, October 2018 1,226 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dodoth where it started6,025 ha reached on 24 Nov0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Nov | 28.4 °C | 44 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Nov | 28.1 °C | 45 % | 54 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 28 Nov | 28.6 °C | 42 % | 59 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 Nov | 29.1 °C | 41 % | 58 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 30 Nov | 29.3 °C | 31 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Dec | 29.4 °C | 27 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Dec | 29.8 °C | 24 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Dec | 29.8 °C | 33 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Dec | 29.0 °C | 36 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Dec | 29.0 °C | 42 % | 56 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 6 Dec | 29.7 °C | 40 % | 67 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Dec after | 29.7 °C | 39 % | 70 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Dec after | 29.4 °C | 38 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 9 Dec after | 28.8 °C | 41 % | 63 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Dec after | 27.8 °C | 43 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 11 Dec after | 28.0 °C | 47 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 12 Dec after | 27.2 °C | 50 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 13 Dec after | 24.2 °C | 62 % | 31 km/h | 18.3 mm | Very low 0 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 30 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 132Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,150 haDodoth12 December 2020 · 10 days · 7 km away
- 4,600 haDodoth4 January 2026 · 7 days · 17 km away
- 5,317 haDodoth1 March 2021 · 5 days · 19 km away
- 4,530 haDodoth4 January 2026 · 7 days · 19 km away
- 15,183 haTurkana West26 January 2021 · 8 days · 20 km away
- 6,500 haDodoth19 January 2021 · 4 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dodoth fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 November 2025 and 6 December 2025: 11 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 5,983 hectares (59.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dodoth (6,025 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.