Jore fire, 11 February 2024 Jore
The fire started on 11 February 2024 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,085 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 293th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 32 in Ethiopia in 2024, of 87.
- Burnt area
- 3,085ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 11 Feb 2024 – 18 Feb 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Feb
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 128
- in a single hotspot: 41 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 341 ha in 2016, 2,338 ha in 2017, 764 ha in 2018, 1,191 ha in 2019, 748 ha in 2020, 2,118 ha in 2021, 1,347 ha in 2022, 1,110 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,930 ha that had burned before.
- 1,346 ha Jore fire, January 2017 9,110 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,110 ha Jore fire, February 2021 47,727 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,110 ha Jore fire, January 2023 7,101 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 829 ha Jore fire, January 2017 5,550 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 744 ha Jore fire, January 2022 201,499 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 705 ha Jore fire, March 2020 2,897 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 341 ha Jore fire, February 2016 14,297 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 217 ha Jore fire, December 2018 2,568 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started3,105 ha reached on 11 Feb0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Feb | 39.6 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Feb | 39.5 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Feb | 40.1 °C | 21 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 14 Feb | 40.4 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Feb | 40.3 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 16 Feb | 39.7 °C | 21 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Feb | 40.7 °C | 9 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 18 Feb | 39.8 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 19 Feb after | 40.5 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 20 Feb after | 40.7 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Feb after | 40.5 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Feb after | 39.7 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Feb after | 40.1 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 24 Feb after | 39.8 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Feb after | 41.5 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 26 Feb after | 40.1 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Feb after | 40.7 °C | 15 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 28 Feb after | 40.1 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 18 February 2024 the air beside the fire reached 90 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 58: 3.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 128Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 47,727 haJore2 February 2021 · 36 days · 3 km away
- 64,789 haJore21 December 2016 · 42 days · 18 km away
- 76,225 haJoreFebruary 2026 · 35 days · 19 km away
- 201,499 haJoreJanuary 2022 · 78 days · 22 km away
- 30,249 haJore27 December 2016 · 23 days · 36 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 11 February 2024 and 18 February 2024: 8 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 3,085 hectares (30.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Jore (3,105 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.