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Jore fire, February 2026 Jore, Abobo, Gog

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2026, 10:35 UTC

The fire started on 11 February 2026 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 35 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 76,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 2 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.

Burnt area
76,225ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
35days
11 Feb 2026 – 17 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
11 Feb
2026
Heat detections
2,253
in a single hotspot: 159 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
25.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Mar 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Feb17 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

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Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

41°high
49km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 18 Mar.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 32,662 ha in 2016, 50,581 ha in 2017, 8,427 ha in 2018, 40,869 ha in 2019, 27,439 ha in 2020, 56,318 ha in 2021, 52,666 ha in 2022, 27,891 ha in 2023, 28,148 ha in 2024, 28,327 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 76,014 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Jore where it started
    75,610 ha reached on 4 Feb
    22 %
  2. Abobo
    673 ha reached on 18 Feb
    0.2 %
  3. Gog
    422 ha reached on 4 Feb
    0.1 %

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 38.2 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Feb 37.2 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Feb 40.2 °C 12 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Feb 38.8 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Feb 38.3 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Feb 37.9 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Feb 39.7 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 46
18 Feb 39.0 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Feb 35.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
20 Feb 37.4 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Feb 39.1 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Feb 38.5 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Feb 38.3 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Feb 37.6 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Feb 37.6 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
26 Feb 37.4 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Feb 37.6 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Feb 37.5 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
1 Mar 37.4 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Mar 36.8 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Mar 36.9 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
4 Mar 37.1 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
5 Mar 36.8 °C 7 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Mar 37.2 °C 8 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
7 Mar 38.2 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Mar 39.6 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Mar 39.6 °C 7 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Mar 38.5 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Mar 37.7 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Mar 41.0 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Mar 39.3 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Mar 40.1 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Mar 38.9 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Mar 38.8 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Mar 36.9 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 49
18 Mar after 33.2 °C 39 % 27 km/h 2.5 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Feb 2026
After · 24 Mar 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 5 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 162 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 83: 5.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak162 µg/m³
Days over the guideline38 days
PM10182 µg/m³
Optical depth1.73
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Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 2,253Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 February 2026 and 17 March 2026: 35 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 76,225 hectares (762.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Jore (75,610 ha, 22 %); Abobo (673 ha, 0.2 %); Gog (422 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.

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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.