Adaklu fire, December 2022 Adaklu, Ho West
The fire started on 31 December 2022 in Adaklu, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,926 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Volta since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 22 in Ghana in 2022, of 118.
- Burnt area
- 3,926ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 31 Dec 2022 – 4 Jan 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 31 Dec
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 132
- in a single hotspot: 121 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.1GW
- 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 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,091 ha in 2016, 339 ha in 2017, 1,229 ha in 2018, 1,090 ha in 2019, 3,828 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,721 ha that had burned before.
- 1,229 ha Adaklu fire, December 2018 2,807 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 686 ha Adaklu fire, December 2019 3,032 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 208 ha Ho West fire, January 2017 2,100 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Adaklu where it started3,681 ha reached on 31 Dec4.6 %
-
270 ha reached on 5 Jan0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec | 34.3 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Jan | 34.9 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Jan | 34.3 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Jan | 34.7 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Jan | 34.0 °C | 31 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 6 Jan after | 34.2 °C | 41 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Jan after | 34.9 °C | 43 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 8 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 41 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 9 Jan after | 35.8 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Jan after | 35.0 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 11 Jan after | 34.2 °C | 42 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 12 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Jan after | 35.0 °C | 39 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 39 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
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.
Detections table · 132Every 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 Adaklu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 December 2022 and 4 January 2023: 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 3,926 hectares (39.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Adaklu (3,681 ha, 4.6 %); Ho West (270 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ghana (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.
Emergency number: 112
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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.