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Jore fire, 10 February 2017 Akobo, Jore

Out · last detection 13 Feb 2017, 10:41 UTC

The fire started on 10 February 2017 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,979 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 107th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 42 in Ethiopia in 2017, of 266.

Burnt area
5,979ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
10 Feb 2017 – 13 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
10 Feb
2017
Heat detections
145
in a single hotspot: 287 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Feb13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

10111213

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
40km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Akobo
    5,026 ha reached on 10 Feb
    2.4 %
  2. Jore where it started
    990 ha reached on 9 Feb
    0.3 %

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 Feb 41.6 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
11 Feb 41.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
12 Feb 40.9 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Feb 40.1 °C 13 % 36 km/h 2.5 mm Very high 41
14 Feb after 35.0 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Feb after 38.6 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Feb after 39.6 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Feb after 37.3 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Feb after 35.2 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Feb after 37.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Feb after 39.4 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 46
21 Feb after 36.5 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Feb after 39.1 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Feb after 39.9 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Feb 2017
After · 20 Feb 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 · 145Every 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 10 February 2017 and 13 February 2017: 4 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 5,979 hectares (59.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Akobo (5,026 ha, 2.4 %); Jore (990 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.