Jore fire, 30 August 2026 Jore
The fire started on 30 August 2026 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,667 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 146th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 35 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 4,667ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 30 Aug 2026 – 4 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 30 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 57
- in a single hotspot: 30 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 594MW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 13 Sept.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,059 ha in 2016, 4,067 ha in 2017, 1,981 ha in 2018, 3,985 ha in 2019, 2,926 ha in 2020, 4,378 ha in 2021, 3,104 ha in 2022, 3,974 ha in 2023, 1,877 ha in 2024, 3,866 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,697 ha that had burned before.
- 4,067 ha Jore fire, December 2016 64,789 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,985 ha Jore fire, January 2019 23,559 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,923 ha Jore fire, January 2023 16,039 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,670 ha Jore fire, February 2021 47,727 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,630 ha Jore fire, February 2025 10,691 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,867 ha Jore fire, January 2022 201,499 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,478 ha Jore fire, March 2020 17,815 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,835 ha Jore fire, March 2018 2,719 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started4,695 ha reached on 30 Aug1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug | 36.6 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Aug | 34.8 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Sept | 38.1 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 33 |
| 2 Sept | 39.8 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 3 Sept | 38.5 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 38 |
| 4 Sept | 38.7 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 5 Sept after | 39.1 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 6 Sept after | 39.4 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 7 Sept after | 39.3 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Sept after | 40.4 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Sept after | 39.0 °C | 22 % | 46 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Sept after | 37.9 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 46 |
| 11 Sept after | 39.5 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Sept after | 39.3 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Sept after | 34.1 °C | 37 % | 25 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 20 |
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 4 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 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 · 57Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 23,559 haJore4 January 2019 · 21 days · 1 km away
- 201,499 haJoreJanuary 2022 · 78 days · 4 km away
- 76,225 haJoreFebruary 2026 · 35 days · 8 km away
- 64,789 haJore21 December 2016 · 42 days · 15 km away
- 30,249 haJore27 December 2016 · 23 days · 21 km away
- 47,727 haJore2 February 2021 · 36 days · 23 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jore fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2026 and 4 September 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 4,667 hectares (46.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Jore (4,695 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.