Dorset fire, May 2020 Dorset
The fire started on 18 May 2020 in Dorset, United Kingdom, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 218 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 19th largest in England since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 8 in United Kingdom in 2020, of 16.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 218ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 18 May 2020 – 23 May 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 18 May
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 18
- in a single hotspot: 51 MW
- Danger at start
- 12
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 81MW
- detected power per day, on average
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
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Dorset where it started217 ha reached on 18 May0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Scrub and transitional woodland48 %
- Mixed forest33 %
- Coniferous forest13 %
- Other natural land6.0 %
Protected area affected (EFFIS layer): 19 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 May | 18.4 °C | 50 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 19 May | 21.0 °C | 58 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 20 May | 20.7 °C | 50 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 21 May | 22.7 °C | 46 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 22 May | 17.4 °C | 54 % | 67 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 23 May | 16.8 °C | 49 % | 69 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 24 May after | 20.2 °C | 46 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 25 May after | 21.4 °C | 40 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 26 May after | 23.2 °C | 39 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 27 May after | 22.7 °C | 50 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 28 May after | 20.8 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 May after | 22.0 °C | 32 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 30 May after | 22.9 °C | 36 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 May after | 23.0 °C | 34 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
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 21 May 2020 the air beside the fire reached 17 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 · 18Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dorset fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 May 2020 to 23 May 2020 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 May 2020 to 21 May 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 218 hectares (2.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dorset (217 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 22.7 °C, humidity dropped to 46 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 13, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of United Kingdom (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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 May 2020 to 21 May 2020. 18 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Where this data comes from
The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. 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 ADM3 (Open Government Licence v3.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.