How long did the Dodoth fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 November 2025 and 2 December 2025: 22 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 13,558 hectares (135.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Dodoth (9,184 ha, 1.2 %); Jie (3,811 ha, 1.0 %); Matheniko (638 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.

UG · Uganda · 2025-11-11 → 2025-12-02

Dodoth fire, 11 November 2025 Dodoth, Jie, Matheniko

Out · last detection 2 Dec 2025, 11:22 UTC

The fire started on 11 November 2025 in Dodoth, Uganda, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,558 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 1377 with a page). Number 3 in Uganda in 2025, of 226.

Burnt area: 13,558ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 22days; 11 Nov 2025 – 2 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit: 3; counties
Started on: 11 Nov; 2025
Heat detections: 352; in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 3.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 2 Dec 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Nov2 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1113141516171819202122232425262728293012

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

60km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,923 ha in 2020, 624 ha in 2024.

What happened to each town

Dodoth where it started

9,184 ha reached on 10 Nov

1.2 %
Jie

3,811 ha reached on 11 Nov

1.0 %
Matheniko

638 ha reached on 15 Nov

0.2 %

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)
11 Nov	31.8 °C	21 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
12 Nov	31.5 °C	23 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
13 Nov	30.2 °C	34 %	54 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
14 Nov	30.7 °C	31 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
15 Nov	30.5 °C	29 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
16 Nov	31.7 °C	21 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
17 Nov	29.4 °C	30 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
18 Nov	30.3 °C	35 %	55 km/h	0.1 mm	High 30
19 Nov	30.3 °C	33 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
20 Nov	29.8 °C	31 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
21 Nov	30.6 °C	26 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
22 Nov	30.7 °C	19 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Nov	30.2 °C	26 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
24 Nov	30.8 °C	28 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Nov	31.6 °C	29 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
26 Nov	30.4 °C	30 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
27 Nov	30.3 °C	31 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
28 Nov	30.8 °C	28 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
29 Nov	30.6 °C	30 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
30 Nov	30.6 °C	22 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
1 Dec	31.2 °C	16 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
2 Dec	31.7 °C	17 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
3 Dec after	31.6 °C	24 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
4 Dec after	30.8 °C	27 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
5 Dec after	30.5 °C	29 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
6 Dec after	30.9 °C	30 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
7 Dec after	31.4 °C	26 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
8 Dec after	30.7 °C	29 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
9 Dec after	30.9 °C	32 %	58 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 41
10 Dec after	30.0 °C	29 %	42 km/h	0.3 mm	High 35
11 Dec after	29.9 °C	32 %	42 km/h	0.1 mm	High 35
12 Dec after	29.5 °C	36 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 4 Nov 2025

After · 9 Dec 2025

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 22 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1023 µg/m³

Optical depth0.26

WHO 15

910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012345

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 352Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Uganda ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Dodoth fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 November 2025 and 2 December 2025: 22 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 13,558 hectares (135.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Dodoth (9,184 ha, 1.2 %); Jie (3,811 ha, 1.0 %); Matheniko (638 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned