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Jore fire, 16 January 2017 Jore

Out · last detection 24 Jan 2017, 11:56 UTC

The fire started on 16 January 2017 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,110 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 59th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 15 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
9,110ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
16 Jan 2017 – 23 Jan 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Jan
2017
Heat detections
331
in a single hotspot: 142 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
4.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Jan 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jan23 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324

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
37km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,249 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Jore where it started
    9,168 ha reached on 10 Jan
    2.7 %

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)
10 Jan 38.7 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Jan 39.0 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Jan 38.8 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Jan 39.5 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Jan 39.9 °C 11 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Jan 40.4 °C 11 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Jan 40.6 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Jan 39.4 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
18 Jan 39.4 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Jan 40.0 °C 12 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Jan 39.2 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jan 40.1 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan 40.3 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Jan 40.6 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Jan after 40.3 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Jan after 39.6 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Jan after 39.4 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Jan after 40.7 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Jan after 40.4 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Jan after 39.9 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Jan after 38.9 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Jan after 39.8 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Feb after 39.7 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Feb after 38.3 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Feb after 38.5 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Feb after 38.8 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Feb after 39.6 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Feb after 39.8 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Feb after 39.1 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Feb after 41.0 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Feb after 39.5 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jan 2017
After · 30 Jan 2017

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 · 331Every 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 16 January 2017 and 23 January 2017: 8 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 9,110 hectares (91.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Jore (9,168 ha, 2.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.