Adaklu fire, January 2026 Adaklu
The fire started on 24 January 2026 in Adaklu, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,019 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 3th largest in Volta since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 40 in Ghana in 2026, of 179.
- Burnt area
- 5,019ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 24 Jan 2026 – 29 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 108
- in a single hotspot: 100 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 1 Feb.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 928 ha in 2016, 679 ha in 2017, 1,609 ha in 2018, 2,072 ha in 2019, 2,683 ha in 2021, 1,844 ha in 2022, 738 ha in 2023, 1,085 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,288 ha that had burned before.
- 1,844 ha Adaklu fire, December 2022 3,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,609 ha Adaklu fire, December 2018 2,807 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,106 ha Adaklu fire, December 2019 3,032 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Adaklu where it started5,052 ha reached on 25 Jan6.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Jan | 35.4 °C | 42 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 25 Jan | 35.9 °C | 38 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 Jan | 35.8 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 27 Jan | 35.3 °C | 42 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 28 Jan | 35.4 °C | 47 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 Jan | 35.7 °C | 44 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 30 Jan after | 35.4 °C | 46 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 31 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 54 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 53 % | 28 km/h | 2.2 mm | Low 7 |
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 26 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 61 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 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 · 108Every 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 24 January 2026 and 29 January 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 5,019 hectares (50.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Adaklu (5,052 ha, 6.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
- 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.