Jore fire, 6 March 2025 Jore
The fire started on 6 March 2025 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,093 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 100th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 17 in Ethiopia in 2025, of 127.
- Burnt area
- 6,093ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 6 Mar 2025 – 9 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 140
- in a single hotspot: 86 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.0GW
- 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
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 794 ha in 2016, 2,303 ha in 2017, 3,297 ha in 2018, 3,514 ha in 2019, 1,096 ha in 2020, 6,129 ha in 2021, 6,725 ha in 2022, 2,698 ha in 2023, 2,272 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,133 ha that had burned before.
- 6,725 ha Jore fire, January 2022 201,499 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,436 ha Jore fire, January 2019 14,232 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,370 ha Jore fire, March 2018 7,103 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,303 ha Jore fire, December 2016 64,789 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,272 ha Jore fire, March 2024 6,850 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,735 ha Jore fire, April 2021 5,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,079 ha Jore fire, February 2019 3,723 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,054 ha Jore fire, March 2021 5,983 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started6,133 ha reached on 6 Mar1.8 %
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 Mar | 40.9 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 7 Mar | 40.5 °C | 7 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 8 Mar | 39.9 °C | 10 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 9 Mar | 39.8 °C | 7 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 10 Mar after | 39.5 °C | 10 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 11 Mar after | 39.3 °C | 13 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 12 Mar after | 39.4 °C | 11 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 13 Mar after | 39.1 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 14 Mar after | 41.4 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Mar after | 41.5 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 16 Mar after | 41.1 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Mar after | 39.7 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 18 Mar after | 40.3 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 19 Mar after | 39.6 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very high 46 |
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 9 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 168 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 102: 6.8 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 · 140Every 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 · 17 km away
- 76,225 haJoreFebruary 2026 · 35 days · 20 km away
- 201,499 haJoreJanuary 2022 · 78 days · 21 km away
- 33,633 haJore6 March 2018 · 18 days · 25 km away
- 64,789 haJore21 December 2016 · 42 days · 27 km away
- 49,326 haJikawo9 February 2026 · 36 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jore fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 March 2025 and 9 March 2025: 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 6,093 hectares (60.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Jore (6,133 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.