Jore fire, 16 June 2026 Jore, Gambella Wild Life Reserve
The fire started on 16 June 2026 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,186 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 83th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 16 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 7,186ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 16 Jun 2026 – 20 Jun 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Jun
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 103
- in a single hotspot: 48 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.0GW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.2 mm on 23 Jun.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 72 ha in 2016, 1,404 ha in 2017, 3,302 ha in 2018, 2,465 ha in 2019, 9 ha in 2020, 4,214 ha in 2021, 7,430 ha in 2022, 2,632 ha in 2023, 113 ha in 2024, 3,199 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,950 ha that had burned before.
- 6,123 ha Jore fire, January 2022 201,499 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,251 ha Jore fire, March 2021 16,647 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,652 ha Jore fire, March 2018 2,016 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,514 ha Jikawo fire, February 2025 25,208 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,355 ha Jore fire, January 2017 6,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,075 ha Jore fire, January 2019 2,151 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 764 ha Jore fire, March 2018 33,633 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 657 ha Jore fire, February 2019 2,560 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started6,629 ha reached on 16 Jun2.0 %
-
607 ha1.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jun | 35.9 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Jun | 37.1 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Jun | 37.7 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Jun | 38.0 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 20 Jun | 39.3 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Jun after | 35.8 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Jun after | 34.2 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Jun after | 31.9 °C | 44 % | 34 km/h | 10.2 mm | Very low 5 |
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 19 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.2 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 · 103Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 33,633 haJore6 March 2018 · 18 days · 12 km away
- 49,326 haJikawo9 February 2026 · 36 days · 18 km away
- 25,208 haJikawo21 February 2025 · 25 days · 26 km away
- 47,727 haJore2 February 2021 · 36 days · 28 km away
- 76,225 haJoreFebruary 2026 · 35 days · 37 km away
- 201,499 haJoreJanuary 2022 · 78 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jore fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 June 2026 and 20 June 2026: 5 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 7,186 hectares (71.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Jore (6,629 ha, 2.0 %); Gambella Wild Life Reserve (607 ha, 1.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.