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ET · Ethiopia · –

Jikawo fire, 5 February 2023 Jikawo, Jore

Out · last detection 15 Feb 2023, 10:24 UTC

The fire started on 5 February 2023 in Jikawo, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,678 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 188th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 535 with a page). Number 28 in Ethiopia in 2023, of 101.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Wantawo · 2017Jore · 2016Jikawo · 2020Jikawo · 2025

Burnt area
3,678ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
5 Feb 2023 – 18 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
5 Feb
2023
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
109MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Feb18 Feb
15 Feb 2023

How it evolved, day by day

5 Feb 2023 · 3 MW · 1 8 Feb 2023 · 43 MW · 3 10 Feb 2023 · 59 MW · 5 11 Feb 2023 · 186 MW · 19 12 Feb 2023 · 382 MW · 55 13 Feb 2023 · 80 MW · 12 15 Feb 2023 · 11 MW · 1
5 Feb 10 Feb 12 Feb 15 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
50km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 81 ha in 2017, 580 ha in 2018, 983 ha in 2020, 3,144 ha in 2021, 2,140 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,488 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.3% of the area of London (37 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Jikawo where it started
    3,088 ha reached on 5 Feb
    2.8 %
  2. Jore
    614 ha reached on 12 Feb
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Very dry air: 26 % of the area in Ethiopia 60 days without rain: 37 % of the area in Ethiopia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
5 Feb 38.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Feb 39.2 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Feb 39.3 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
8 Feb 37.5 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Feb 38.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Feb 39.0 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Feb 38.7 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Feb 38.9 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Feb 39.0 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Feb 39.1 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Feb 38.8 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
16 Feb 36.5 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
17 Feb 37.3 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
18 Feb 38.0 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Feb after 38.1 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Feb after 38.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Feb after 39.7 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Feb after 40.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Feb after 40.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
24 Feb after 40.0 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Feb after 39.3 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Feb after 40.7 °C 18 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Feb after 40.4 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Feb after 38.9 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 51

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 57.4, a minimum humidity of 14% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 31.

FWI at the start 57.4
Minimum humidity 14 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Wantawo fire, January 2017
2,217 ha 11 days FWI 57.3 Min. humidity 14 % 33 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
3,948 ha
median area
13 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 4 of 31 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,678 ha against a median of 3,948 ha) and lasted 14 days, against 9 days.

In 27 of 31, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.6 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
50km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 18 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 4 of 31, with a median of 2.6 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jan 2023
After · 25 Feb 2023

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 12 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 139 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak139 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10202 µg/m³
Optical depth1.04
8 Feb10 Feb12 Feb14 Feb16 Feb
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 · 96Every 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 Ethiopia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Jikawo fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 February 2023 to 18 February 2023 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 February 2023 to 13 February 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,678 hectares (36.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jikawo (3,088 ha, 2.8 %); Jore (614 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ethiopia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 31. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 3,948 ha; 13 % went past 10,000 ha. In 27 of 31, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.6 mm.

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.

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 13 February 2023 → 18 February 2023.
  2. Start date: 10 February 2023 → 5 February 2023.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 February 2023 to 13 February 2023. 96 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.