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Biakoye fire, February 2016 Biakoye, Kadjebi, Jasikan

Out · last detection 16 Feb 2016, 01:25 UTC

The fire started on 3 February 2016 in Biakoye, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,941 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Oti since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 8 in Ghana in 2016, of 122.

Burnt area
9,941ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
3 Feb 2016 – 16 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
4
districts
Started on
3 Feb
2016
Heat detections
364
in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Feb16 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

3456789101112131416

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
30km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 17 Feb.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Biakoye where it started
    5,684 ha reached on 27 Jan
    5.1 %
  2. Kadjebi
    2,159 ha reached on 30 Jan
    3.1 %
  3. Jasikan
    2,064 ha reached on 10 Feb
    3.7 %
  4. Krachi East
    101 ha reached on 11 Feb
    0.0 %

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)
3 Feb 33.0 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Feb 33.6 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Feb 34.9 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Feb 35.9 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Feb 34.2 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Feb 32.9 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Feb 34.4 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Feb 34.6 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Feb 35.0 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Feb 33.6 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Feb 32.8 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Feb 33.3 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Feb 33.4 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Feb 33.3 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
17 Feb after 34.9 °C 44 % 29 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Jan 2016
After · 23 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 · 364Every 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 Biakoye fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 February 2016 and 16 February 2016: 14 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 9,941 hectares (99.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Biakoye (5,684 ha, 5.1 %); Kadjebi (2,159 ha, 3.1 %); Jasikan (2,064 ha, 3.7 %); Krachi East (101 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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
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.

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.