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Jore fire, 27 January 2016 Jore

Out · last detection 12 Feb 2016, 23:00 UTC

The fire started on 27 January 2016 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,490 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 118th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 53 in Ethiopia in 2016, of 309.

Burnt area
5,490ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
27 Jan 2016 – 12 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
27 Jan
2016
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
60
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jan12 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

2729303113456789101112

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
45km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 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

  1. Jore where it started
    5,524 ha reached on 26 Jan
    1.6 %

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)
27 Jan 35.3 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Jan 34.8 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Jan 35.1 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Jan 36.7 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
31 Jan 37.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Feb 38.7 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Feb 37.4 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Feb 38.2 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Feb 39.0 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Feb 40.4 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Feb 40.2 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Feb 40.2 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
8 Feb 40.2 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
9 Feb 40.8 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
10 Feb 40.1 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
11 Feb 39.9 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
12 Feb 40.1 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
13 Feb after 40.9 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
14 Feb after 39.2 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Feb after 41.1 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Feb after 40.9 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
17 Feb after 41.0 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Feb after 40.3 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Feb after 41.3 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Feb after 41.5 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Feb after 41.6 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 Feb after 40.7 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jan 2016
After · 19 Feb 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 167Every 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 Jore fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 January 2016 and 12 February 2016: 17 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 5,490 hectares (54.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Jore (5,524 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, class 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.

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

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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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.