Jore fire, 29 December 2018 Jore
The fire started on 29 December 2018 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,559 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 13th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 4 in Ethiopia in 2018, of 102.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Jore · 2016Jore · 2016Jore · 2018Jore · 2016
- Burnt area
- 23,559ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 30days
- 29 Dec 2018 – 27 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Dec
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 729
- in a single hotspot: 276 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 384MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,107 ha in 2016, 15,803 ha in 2017, 2,609 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,644 ha that had burned before.
- 16,988 ha Jore fire, December 2016 64,789 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,933 ha Jore fire, January 2016 5,490 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,028 ha Jore fire, March 2018 2,719 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,225 ha Jore fire, January 2016 2,248 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 86 ha Jore fire, January 2016 7,547 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 68 ha Pochalla fire, January 2017 10,025 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started23,660 ha reached on 29 Dec7.0 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Dec | 38.0 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 30 Dec | 36.4 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 Dec | 36.6 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Jan | 36.3 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Jan | 37.3 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Jan | 37.6 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Jan | 37.9 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 5 Jan | 37.6 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Jan | 38.8 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Jan | 39.2 °C | 14 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 8 Jan | 38.7 °C | 15 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 9 Jan | 38.4 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Jan | 38.5 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Jan | 38.1 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 12 Jan | 39.0 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 13 Jan | 39.0 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Jan | 39.2 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 15 Jan | 40.4 °C | 11 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Jan | 40.4 °C | 10 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 17 Jan | 39.9 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 18 Jan | 40.5 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 19 Jan | 39.1 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 Jan | 39.3 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 21 Jan | 40.2 °C | 11 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 22 Jan | 40.4 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 23 Jan | 40.5 °C | 12 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 24 Jan | 39.8 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 25 Jan | 40.1 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 26 Jan | 40.7 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 27 Jan | 40.3 °C | 18 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 28 Jan after | 41.1 °C | 16 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 29 Jan after | 39.8 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 30 Jan after | 39.2 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 31 Jan after | 39.3 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Feb after | 40.0 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 2 Feb after | 40.2 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 3 Feb after | 40.9 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Feb after | 40.4 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 5 Feb after | 42.0 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 6 Feb after | 40.6 °C | 14 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
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 · 729Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 201,499 haJoreJanuary 2022 · 82 days · 3 km away
- 76,225 haJoreFebruary 2026 · 45 days · 7 km away
- 64,789 haJore21 December 2016 · 48 days · 14 km away
- 30,249 haJore20 December 2016 · 37 days · 21 km away
- 47,727 haJore27 January 2021 · 47 days · 22 km away
- 21,905 haPochalla27 December 2016 · 18 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jore fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 December 2018 to 27 January 2019 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 January 2019 to 24 January 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 23,559 hectares (235.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Jore (23,660 ha, 7.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 January 2019 to 24 January 2019. 729 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.
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.