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Jore fire, 27 January 2021 Jore, Gog

Out · last detection 14 Mar 2021, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 27 January 2021 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 47 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 47,727 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 8th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 2 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 256.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Jore · 2016Jore · 2018Jore · 2020Jore · 2016

Burnt area
47,727ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
47days
27 Jan 2021 – 14 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
27 Jan
2021
Heat detections
2,365
in a single hotspot: 381 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
637MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Jan14 Mar
14 Mar 2021

How it evolved, day by day

27 Jan 2021 · 29 MW · 4 29 Jan 2021 · 7 MW · 2 30 Jan 2021 · 35 MW · 3 31 Jan 2021 · 36 MW · 5 1 Feb 2021 · 417 MW · 28 2 Feb 2021 · 203 MW · 14 3 Feb 2021 · 1,026 MW · 44 4 Feb 2021 · 1,151 MW · 88 5 Feb 2021 · 356 MW · 73 6 Feb 2021 · 544 MW · 42 7 Feb 2021 · 1,037 MW · 51 8 Feb 2021 · 328 MW · 33 9 Feb 2021 · 137 MW · 20 10 Feb 2021 · 108 MW · 25 11 Feb 2021 · 471 MW · 54 12 Feb 2021 · 981 MW · 86 13 Feb 2021 · 1,586 MW · 73 14 Feb 2021 · 1,761 MW · 102 15 Feb 2021 · 802 MW · 66 16 Feb 2021 · 312 MW · 26 17 Feb 2021 · 350 MW · 118 18 Feb 2021 · 112 MW · 45 19 Feb 2021 · 383 MW · 71 20 Feb 2021 · 601 MW · 106 21 Feb 2021 · 552 MW · 84 22 Feb 2021 · 3,167 MW · 125 23 Feb 2021 · 1,990 MW · 126 24 Feb 2021 · 1,021 MW · 171 25 Feb 2021 · 495 MW · 95 26 Feb 2021 · 1,136 MW · 117 27 Feb 2021 · 12 MW · 3 28 Feb 2021 · 651 MW · 32 1 Mar 2021 · 305 MW · 17 3 Mar 2021 · 122 MW · 18 4 Mar 2021 · 2,592 MW · 85 5 Mar 2021 · 361 MW · 59 6 Mar 2021 · 556 MW · 25 7 Mar 2021 · 1,238 MW · 69 8 Mar 2021 · 178 MW · 24 9 Mar 2021 · 91 MW · 15 10 Mar 2021 · 127 MW · 5 11 Mar 2021 · 227 MW · 12 12 Mar 2021 · 365 MW · 45 13 Mar 2021 · 705 MW · 57 14 Mar 2021 · 12 MW · 2
27 Jan 4 Feb 11 Feb 18 Feb 22 Feb 25 Feb 5 Mar 12 Mar

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
47km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 15 Mar.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 21,017 ha in 2016, 29,497 ha in 2017, 4,332 ha in 2018, 26,885 ha in 2019, 19,735 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 43,584 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 30% of the area of London (477 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Jore where it started
    47,251 ha reached on 27 Jan
    14 %
  2. Gog
    775 ha reached on 4 Feb
    0.2 %

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)
27 Jan 38.0 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jan 36.5 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jan 38.6 °C 17 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jan 36.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Jan 38.2 °C 18 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Feb 38.3 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Feb 38.3 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Feb 39.2 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Feb 39.4 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Feb 39.6 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
6 Feb 38.0 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
7 Feb 37.2 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
8 Feb 38.0 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
9 Feb 38.6 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Feb 39.3 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Feb 39.3 °C 14 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Feb 40.1 °C 12 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Feb 40.5 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Feb 40.7 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Feb 40.7 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Feb 41.0 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Feb 38.2 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Feb 37.8 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
19 Feb 36.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
20 Feb 36.5 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Feb 38.1 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Feb 38.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Feb 38.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Feb 39.7 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Feb 39.5 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Feb 39.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Feb 36.3 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Feb 40.7 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Mar 40.9 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Mar 38.4 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Mar 39.7 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Mar 37.0 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 44
5 Mar 40.0 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Mar 41.1 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Mar 40.8 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Mar 41.3 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Mar 39.6 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Mar 41.6 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
11 Mar 40.8 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
12 Mar 41.0 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
13 Mar 41.1 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 64
14 Mar 40.3 °C 20 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Mar after 39.7 °C 21 % 40 km/h 2.1 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jan 2021
After · 21 Mar 2021

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 · 2,365Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 January 2021 to 14 March 2021 (47 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 February 2021 to 9 March 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 47,727 hectares (477.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jore (47,251 ha, 14 %); Gog (775 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.6 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 2 February 2021 to 9 March 2021. 2,365 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.