How long did the Lare fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 February 2026 and 14 March 2026: 40 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 15,144 hectares (151.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lare (14,095 ha, 21 %); Jikawo (34 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.

ET · Ethiopia · 2026-02-03 → 2026-03-14

Lare fire, 3 February 2026 Lare, Jikawo

Out · last detection 15 Mar 2026, 10:54 UTC

The fire started on 3 February 2026 in Lare, Ethiopia, and satellites saw it burning for 40 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,144 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 29th largest in Gambela since 2016 (of 611 with a page). Number 6 in Ethiopia in 2026, of 190.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Lare · 2017 Lare · 2019 Maiwut · 2026 Jikawo · 2026

Burnt area: 15,144ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 40days; 3 Feb 2026 – 14 Mar 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 3 Feb; 2026
Heat detections: 807; in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start: 48; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 173MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Feb14 Mar

Play back 15 Mar 2026

How it evolved, day by day

3 Feb 9 Feb 11 Feb 15 Feb 21 Feb 27 Feb 5 Mar 15 Mar

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

42km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 17 Mar.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,236 ha in 2016, 11 ha in 2017, 2,962 ha in 2018, 299 ha in 2019, 1,586 ha in 2020, 138 ha in 2021, 2,810 ha in 2022, 1,869 ha in 2023, 1,970 ha in 2024, 1,381 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,931 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 9.6% of the area of London (151 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Lare where it started

14,095 ha reached on 27 Jan

21 %
Jikawo

34 ha reached on 19 Feb

0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area0.22 ha

Residents≈ 200

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.22 hectares of built-up land and about 200 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
27 Jan	39.8 °C	16 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
28 Jan	38.2 °C	21 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
29 Jan	39.1 °C	15 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
30 Jan	39.8 °C	17 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
31 Jan	37.0 °C	22 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
1 Feb	35.8 °C	27 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
2 Feb	38.2 °C	18 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
3 Feb	39.5 °C	18 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
4 Feb	40.0 °C	18 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
5 Feb	36.3 °C	19 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
6 Feb	39.0 °C	21 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
7 Feb	39.9 °C	12 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
8 Feb	39.6 °C	20 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
9 Feb	38.1 °C	25 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
10 Feb	36.3 °C	28 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
11 Feb	38.9 °C	15 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
12 Feb	37.8 °C	15 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
13 Feb	40.2 °C	14 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
14 Feb	38.8 °C	17 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
15 Feb	38.5 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
16 Feb	37.8 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
17 Feb	39.2 °C	23 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Feb	39.4 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
19 Feb	35.7 °C	29 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 42
20 Feb	37.7 °C	24 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
21 Feb	38.4 °C	18 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
22 Feb	38.5 °C	18 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
23 Feb	38.6 °C	13 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
24 Feb	37.3 °C	12 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
25 Feb	37.6 °C	14 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
26 Feb	37.7 °C	17 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
27 Feb	37.7 °C	16 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
28 Feb	37.4 °C	15 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
1 Mar	37.8 °C	18 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
2 Mar	36.8 °C	12 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
3 Mar	37.0 °C	12 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
4 Mar	37.1 °C	8 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
5 Mar	37.1 °C	9 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
6 Mar	37.5 °C	10 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
7 Mar	38.2 °C	13 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
8 Mar	39.5 °C	10 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
9 Mar	39.6 °C	10 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
10 Mar	38.7 °C	10 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
11 Mar	38.6 °C	18 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
12 Mar	41.3 °C	10 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
13 Mar	39.6 °C	19 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
14 Mar	40.8 °C	18 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
15 Mar after	39.0 °C	22 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
16 Mar after	39.6 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
17 Mar after	37.4 °C	29 %	26 km/h	1.0 mm	High 37

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 27 Jan 2026

After · 21 Mar 2026

Before After

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 10 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 137 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 85: 5.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak137 µg/m³

Days over the guideline45 days

PM10152 µg/m³

Optical depth1.42

WHO 15

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627281234567891011121314151617

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 · 807Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ethiopia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lare fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 February 2026 and 14 March 2026: 40 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 15,144 hectares (151.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lare (14,095 ha, 21 %); Jikawo (34 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 41.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 807 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.

Where it burned