Jore fire, 2 February 2021 Jore, Gog
The fire started on 2 February 2021 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 47,727 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 8th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 2 in Ethiopia in 2021, of 255.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Jore · 2016Jore · 2019Jore · 2020Jore · 2016
- Burnt area
- 47,727ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 36days
- 2 Feb 2021 – 9 Mar 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 2 Feb
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 2,365
- in a single hotspot: 381 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 746MW
- 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 more than two months 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.
- 27,771 ha Jore fire, December 2016 64,789 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 15,905 ha Jore fire, January 2019 23,559 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14,327 ha Jore fire, March 2020 17,815 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,259 ha Jore fire, February 2016 14,297 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,589 ha Jore fire, January 2016 5,490 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,735 ha Jore fire, January 2017 9,110 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,291 ha Jore fire, April 2020 3,012 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,223 ha Jore fire, February 2019 3,723 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 started47,251 ha reached on 27 Jan14 %
-
775 ha reached on 4 Feb0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Feb | 38.3 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Feb | 39.2 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 4 Feb | 39.4 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Feb | 39.6 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 6 Feb | 38.0 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 7 Feb | 37.2 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 8 Feb | 38.0 °C | 11 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 9 Feb | 38.6 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Feb | 39.3 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 Feb | 39.3 °C | 14 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Feb | 40.1 °C | 12 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 13 Feb | 40.5 °C | 10 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 14 Feb | 40.7 °C | 10 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Feb | 40.7 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 16 Feb | 41.0 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 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 55 |
| 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 | Very high 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 after | 41.6 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 11 Mar after | 40.8 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 12 Mar after | 41.0 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 13 Mar after | 41.1 °C | 16 % | 44 km/h | 0.5 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 14 Mar after | 40.3 °C | 20 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 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.
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.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 76,225 haJoreFebruary 2026 · 35 days · 16 km away
- 64,789 haJore21 December 2016 · 42 days · 16 km away
- 201,499 haJoreJanuary 2022 · 78 days · 20 km away
- 23,559 haJore4 January 2019 · 21 days · 22 km away
- 30,249 haJore27 December 2016 · 23 days · 34 km away
- 33,633 haJore6 March 2018 · 18 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jore fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 February 2021 and 9 March 2021: 36 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 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 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 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.
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.