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Bole fire, 7 December 2019 Bole, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, West Gonja

Out · last detection 15 Dec 2019, 13:57 UTC

The fire started on 7 December 2019 in Bole, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,397 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 96th largest in Savannah since 2016 (of 336 with a page). Number 34 in Ghana in 2019, of 127.

Burnt area
3,397ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
7 Dec 2019 – 14 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
7 Dec
2019
Heat detections
138
in a single hotspot: 215 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Dec 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Dec14 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

7891011121315

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
25km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,116 ha in 2016, 1,370 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,777 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bole where it started
    2,794 ha reached on 30 Nov
    0.4 %
  2. Sawla-Tuna-Kalba
    602 ha reached on 30 Nov
    0.1 %
  3. West Gonja
    25 ha reached on 5 Dec
    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)
7 Dec 34.0 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
8 Dec 36.0 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
9 Dec 36.3 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Dec 36.0 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Dec 35.2 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Dec 35.9 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Dec 35.6 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Dec 35.3 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Dec after 35.8 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Dec after 35.6 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Dec after 35.4 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Dec after 34.8 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Dec after 34.6 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Dec after 35.0 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Dec after 35.1 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Dec after 35.7 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Dec after 35.9 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
24 Dec after 35.1 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Nov 2019
After · 21 Dec 2019

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 · 138Every 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 Bole fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 December 2019 and 14 December 2019: 8 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 3,397 hectares (34.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bole (2,794 ha, 0.4 %); Sawla-Tuna-Kalba (602 ha, 0.1 %); West Gonja (25 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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
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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.