Dodoth fire, 4 November 2025 Dodoth, Jie
The fire started on 4 November 2025 in Dodoth, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,363 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 89th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 20 in Uganda in 2025, of 226.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.5 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
- 3,363ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 4 Nov 2025 – 14 Nov 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- counties
- Started on
- 4 Nov
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 51
- in a single hotspot: 22 MW
- Danger at start
- 10
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 411MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 919 ha in 2019, 78 ha in 2020, 329 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,253 ha that had burned before.
- 919 ha Dodoth fire, December 2019 1,221 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 329 ha Dodoth fire, December 2024 1,000 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 78 ha Dodoth fire, January 2020 1,473 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dodoth where it started2,757 ha reached on 3 Nov0.4 %
-
627 ha reached on 3 Nov0.2 %
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 Nov | 29.0 °C | 41 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 5 Nov | 29.4 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 11 |
| 6 Nov | 29.8 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 7 Nov | 29.2 °C | 41 % | 43 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 8 Nov | 27.4 °C | 49 % | 52 km/h | 2.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 9 Nov | 29.5 °C | 36 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 10 Nov | 29.4 °C | 32 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 11 Nov | 30.4 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Nov | 29.6 °C | 30 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 13 Nov | 29.4 °C | 39 % | 54 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 14 Nov | 29.6 °C | 35 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 15 Nov after | 28.9 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 16 Nov after | 30.4 °C | 26 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 17 Nov after | 28.3 °C | 37 % | 47 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 18 Nov after | 29.3 °C | 39 % | 55 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 19 Nov after | 28.8 °C | 38 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 20 Nov after | 28.9 °C | 35 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 21 Nov after | 29.5 °C | 29 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Nov after | 29.6 °C | 22 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 23 Nov after | 29.3 °C | 29 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 24 Nov after | 29.6 °C | 32 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
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 17 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 22 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 · 51Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dodoth fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 November 2025 and 14 November 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 3,363 hectares (33.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dodoth (2,757 ha, 0.4 %); Jie (627 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
- 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.