Jore fire, 2 June 2023 Jore, Jikawo
The fire started on 2 June 2023 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,998 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 183th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 22 in Ethiopia in 2023, of 101.
- Burnt area
- 3,998ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 2 Jun 2023 – 5 Jun 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 2 Jun
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 156
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 6 Jun.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 100 ha in 2016, 923 ha in 2017, 247 ha in 2018, 2,405 ha in 2019, 2,153 ha in 2021, 2,791 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,690 ha that had burned before.
- 2,791 ha Jore fire, January 2022 201,499 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,655 ha Jore fire, January 2019 5,047 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 881 ha Akobo fire, March 2021 4,195 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 750 ha Jore fire, February 2019 5,475 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 697 ha Jore fire, April 2021 2,548 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 465 ha Jore fire, April 2021 7,204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 437 ha Jore fire, January 2017 9,687 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 110 ha Jikawo fire, March 2021 2,115 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started4,026 ha reached on 1 Jun1.2 %
-
0 ha reached on 2 Jun0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Jun | 36.3 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Jun | 38.6 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 4 Jun | 37.2 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Jun | 39.6 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Jun after | 33.2 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 2.9 mm | Moderate 16 |
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 · 156Every 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 2 June 2023 and 5 June 2023: 4 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 3,998 hectares (40.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jore (4,026 ha, 1.2 %); Jikawo (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.