Jore fire, 22 March 2020 Jore
The fire started on 22 March 2020 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,815 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 20th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 3 in Ethiopia in 2020, of 177.
- Burnt area
- 17,815ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 22 Mar 2020 – 7 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 718
- in a single hotspot: 57 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.6GW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 12 Apr.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,885 ha in 2016, 12,949 ha in 2017, 2,534 ha in 2018, 13,118 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,334 ha that had burned before.
- 14,812 ha Jore fire, December 2016 64,789 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12,607 ha Jore fire, January 2019 23,559 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,535 ha Jore fire, January 2016 5,490 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,902 ha Jore fire, January 2016 2,248 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,465 ha Jore fire, March 2018 2,719 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 48 ha Jore fire, February 2019 2,935 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 27 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 started17,924 ha reached on 22 Mar5.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 38.4 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 1.8 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Mar | 38.3 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Mar | 39.3 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Mar | 40.5 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 26 Mar | 40.1 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 27 Mar | 40.4 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Mar | 40.3 °C | 25 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 29 Mar | 39.1 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 30 Mar | 40.1 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Mar | 40.6 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 1 Apr | 41.3 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 2 Apr | 40.3 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 3 Apr | 39.8 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 4 Apr | 39.0 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 2.1 mm | High 33 |
| 5 Apr | 38.5 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Apr | 39.5 °C | 28 % | 45 km/h | 2.3 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Apr | 39.7 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Apr after | 39.5 °C | 26 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Apr after | 40.0 °C | 28 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Apr after | 36.3 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 11 Apr after | 38.2 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Apr after | 36.5 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 24 |
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 · 718Every 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 · 78 days · 2 km away
- 23,559 haJore4 January 2019 · 21 days · 3 km away
- 76,225 haJoreFebruary 2026 · 35 days · 5 km away
- 64,789 haJore21 December 2016 · 42 days · 13 km away
- 47,727 haJore2 February 2021 · 36 days · 19 km away
- 30,249 haJore27 December 2016 · 23 days · 23 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jore fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2020 and 7 April 2020: 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 17,815 hectares (178.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Jore (17,924 ha, 5.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 50 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.