Jore fire, 6 March 2018 Jore, Akobo
The fire started on 6 March 2018 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,698 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 65th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 9 in Ethiopia in 2018, of 96.
- Burnt area
- 8,698ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 6 Mar 2018 – 15 Mar 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Mar
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 262
- in a single hotspot: 210 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.2GW
- sum of detected power
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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 19 Mar.
This area had burned before
43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,012 ha in 2016, 1,801 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,723 ha that had burned before.
- 1,588 ha Jore fire, January 2016 7,547 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,322 ha Jore fire, December 2016 2,751 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 671 ha Pochalla fire, January 2017 10,025 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 237 ha Jore fire, February 2017 3,225 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 214 ha Jore fire, February 2017 5,979 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 102 ha Jore fire, March 2016 2,294 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started7,066 ha reached on 6 Mar2.1 %
-
196 ha reached on 12 Mar0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Mar | 39.2 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 7 Mar | 37.9 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 8 Mar | 39.4 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 9 Mar | 40.9 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 10 Mar | 40.6 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Mar | 39.6 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Mar | 35.5 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Mar | 37.3 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Mar | 37.4 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 1.8 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Mar | 39.3 °C | 25 % | 47 km/h | 2.1 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Mar after | 38.0 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Mar after | 38.3 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Mar after | 38.7 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Mar after | 37.2 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 2.1 mm | High 28 |
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.
Detections table · 262Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jore fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 March 2018 and 15 March 2018: 10 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 8,698 hectares (87.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jore (7,066 ha, 2.1 %); Akobo (196 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.
Report an error
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.