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Atwima Mponua fire, 23 January 2016 Atwima Mponua, Ahafo Ano South West, Ahafo Ano South East

Out · last detection 21 Feb 2016, 01:32 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2016 in Atwima Mponua, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,650 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Ashanti since 2016 (of 103 with a page). Number 2 in Ghana in 2016, of 122.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ahafo Ano South West · 2024Ahafo Ano South West · 2020Atwima Mponua · 2016Ahafo Ano South West · 2016

Burnt area
22,650ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
23 Jan 2016 – 21 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
23 Jan
2016
Heat detections
2,032
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
338MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan21 Feb
21 Feb 2016

How it evolved, day by day

23 Jan 2016 · 170 MW · 15 24 Jan 2016 · 178 MW · 11 25 Jan 2016 · 12 MW · 14 26 Jan 2016 · 150 MW · 44 27 Jan 2016 · 117 MW · 47 28 Jan 2016 · 668 MW · 91 29 Jan 2016 · 307 MW · 98 30 Jan 2016 · 328 MW · 155 31 Jan 2016 · 169 MW · 75 1 Feb 2016 · 260 MW · 47 2 Feb 2016 · 906 MW · 117 3 Feb 2016 · 1,068 MW · 131 4 Feb 2016 · 399 MW · 161 5 Feb 2016 · 385 MW · 122 6 Feb 2016 · 1,141 MW · 167 7 Feb 2016 · 666 MW · 100 8 Feb 2016 · 86 MW · 24 9 Feb 2016 · 118 MW · 40 10 Feb 2016 · 1,251 MW · 250 11 Feb 2016 · 487 MW · 156 12 Feb 2016 · 576 MW · 74 13 Feb 2016 · 216 MW · 37 14 Feb 2016 · 15 MW · 7 15 Feb 2016 · 7 MW · 5 17 Feb 2016 · 6 MW · 1 18 Feb 2016 · 12 MW · 4 19 Feb 2016 · 47 MW · 6 20 Feb 2016 · 19 MW · 10 21 Feb 2016 · 34 MW · 23
23 Jan 28 Jan 2 Feb 7 Feb 10 Feb 12 Feb 18 Feb

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

37°high
37km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 27 Feb.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 14% of the area of London (226 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

  1. Atwima Mponua where it started
    14,294 ha reached on 23 Jan
    7.5 %
  2. Ahafo Ano South West
    8,475 ha reached on 23 Jan
    17 %
  3. Ahafo Ano South East
    33 ha
    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 2015
Built-up area4.1 ha
Residents≈ 550

Inside the perimeter there were about 4.1 hectares of built-up land and about 550 residents (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)
23 Jan 35.2 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Jan 34.1 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Jan 33.7 °C 14 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jan 33.4 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Jan 34.2 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Jan 33.9 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Jan 33.9 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Jan 35.0 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
31 Jan 34.6 °C 17 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Feb 35.2 °C 6 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Feb 35.2 °C 6 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Feb 35.0 °C 14 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Feb 34.5 °C 26 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Feb 36.4 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Feb 37.3 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Feb 36.0 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Feb 35.4 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Feb 35.9 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Feb 36.3 °C 6 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Feb 35.9 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Feb 36.3 °C 17 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Feb 34.7 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Feb 36.1 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Feb 34.4 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.8 mm High 28
16 Feb 34.3 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
17 Feb 36.7 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Feb 35.8 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Feb 36.7 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Feb 37.0 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Feb 35.9 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
22 Feb after 37.0 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 38
23 Feb after 37.1 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Feb after 38.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Feb after 35.6 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm High 36
26 Feb after 36.1 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
27 Feb after 35.8 °C 45 % 36 km/h 1.4 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jan 2016
After · 28 Feb 2016

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 · 2,032Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ghana ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Atwima Mponua fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 January 2016 to 21 February 2016 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 January 2016 to 15 February 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 22,650 hectares (226.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Atwima Mponua (14,294 ha, 7.5 %); Ahafo Ano South West (8,475 ha, 17 %); Ahafo Ano South East (33 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 15 February 2016 → 21 February 2016.

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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 23 January 2016 to 15 February 2016. 2,032 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 2015, 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 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.