Jore fire, 6 April 2020 Jore
The fire started on 6 April 2020 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,012 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 309th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 80 in Ethiopia in 2020, of 177.
- Burnt area
- 3,012ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 6 Apr 2020 – 7 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Apr
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 81
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 967MW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 8 Apr.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,807 ha in 2016, 1,368 ha in 2017, 97 ha in 2018, 1,684 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,992 ha that had burned before.
- 2,807 ha Jore fire, February 2016 14,297 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,387 ha Jore fire, January 2019 14,232 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 255 ha Jore fire, December 2016 64,789 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 192 ha Jore fire, March 2019 4,796 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 134 ha Jore fire, January 2017 9,110 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 128 ha Jore fire, January 2017 2,584 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 97 ha Jore fire, March 2018 7,103 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started3,032 ha reached on 4 Apr0.9 %
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 Apr | 39.5 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 7 Apr | 39.8 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 3.5 mm | High 25 |
| 8 Apr after | 39.7 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 1.8 mm | High 29 |
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 · 81Every 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 April 2020 and 7 April 2020: 2 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 3,012 hectares (30.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Jore (3,032 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
- 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.