Jore fire, September 2026 Jore
The fire started on 1 September 2026 in Jore, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,058 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 299th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 80 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.
- Burnt area
- 3,058ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 1 Sept 2026 – 4 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 1 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 33
- in a single hotspot: 32 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 399MW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.6 mm on 13 Sept.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,378 ha in 2017, 393 ha in 2018, 705 ha in 2019, 2,353 ha in 2021, 2,532 ha in 2022, 554 ha in 2023, 300 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,073 ha that had burned before.
- 2,353 ha Jore fire, March 2021 11,984 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,329 ha Jore fire, January 2022 201,499 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,500 ha Jore fire, January 2017 9,687 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 393 ha Jore fire, March 2018 33,633 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 300 ha Jikawo fire, February 2025 25,208 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 124 ha Jore fire, February 2019 5,475 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Jore fire, February 2017 3,416 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Jore where it started3,079 ha reached on 1 Sept0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sept | 37.5 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Sept | 39.7 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Sept | 37.9 °C | 28 % | 48 km/h | 1.4 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Sept | 38.9 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Sept after | 39.6 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 6 Sept after | 39.7 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Sept after | 39.5 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Sept after | 40.7 °C | 15 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Sept after | 39.0 °C | 23 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Sept after | 38.1 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 Sept after | 39.4 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Sept after | 39.4 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 38 % | 25 km/h | 4.6 mm | Low 8 |
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 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 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 · 33Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Jore fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 September 2026 and 4 September 2026: 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 3,058 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Jore (3,079 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.