Jore fire, 14 April 2026 Jore, Akobo
The fire started on 14 April 2026 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,879 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 336th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 94 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 2,879ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 14 Apr 2026 – 19 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 64
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 891MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 24 Apr.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 111 ha in 2016, 322 ha in 2017, 76 ha in 2018, 1,306 ha in 2019, 2,095 ha in 2021, 206 ha in 2022, 2,131 ha in 2023, 599 ha in 2024, 637 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,855 ha that had burned before.
- 2,095 ha Akobo fire, March 2021 4,195 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,941 ha Akobo fire, April 2023 5,222 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,306 ha Jore fire, January 2019 5,047 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 442 ha Jore fire, April 2024 2,223 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 206 ha Jore fire, January 2022 201,499 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 190 ha Jore fire, June 2023 3,998 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6 ha Akobo fire, April 2018 2,547 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started2,566 ha reached on 15 Apr0.8 %
-
333 ha reached on 18 Apr0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr | 39.1 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Apr | 39.0 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 38 |
| 16 Apr | 38.4 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Apr | 37.6 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Apr | 39.0 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Apr | 39.6 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Apr after | 35.5 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Apr after | 38.2 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Apr after | 38.2 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Apr after | 38.1 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Apr after | 34.2 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 3.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 20 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 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 · 64Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 25,208 haJikawo21 February 2025 · 25 days · 12 km away
- 48,009 haWantawo2 March 2022 · 21 days · 18 km away
- 49,326 haJikawo9 February 2026 · 36 days · 22 km away
- 33,633 haJore6 March 2018 · 18 days · 25 km away
- 34,778 haLuakpiny/NasirJanuary 2017 · 15 days · 40 km away
- 25,474 haMaiwut2 February 2021 · 14 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jore fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 April 2026 and 19 April 2026: 6 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 2,879 hectares (28.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jore (2,566 ha, 0.8 %); Akobo (333 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.