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Chereponi fire, January 2024 Saboba, Chereponi, Gushegu

Out · last detection 17 Jan 2024, 00:59 UTC

The fire started on 11 January 2024 in Chereponi, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,637 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in North East Region since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 16 in Ghana in 2024, of 115.

Burnt area
4,637ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
11 Jan 2024 – 17 Jan 2024
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
11 Jan
2024
Heat detections
141
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Jan 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jan17 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

111213151617

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
34km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 45 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 130 ha in 2016, 985 ha in 2017, 1,468 ha in 2019, 117 ha in 2020, 78 ha in 2021, 715 ha in 2022, 555 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,968 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Saboba
    3,541 ha reached on 12 Jan
    2.0 %
  2. Chereponi where it started
    969 ha reached on 11 Jan
    0.7 %
  3. Gushegu
    157 ha reached on 12 Jan
    0.1 %

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)
11 Jan 37.6 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Jan 37.3 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Jan 36.6 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jan 37.0 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Jan 36.8 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Jan 35.1 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Jan 35.1 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Jan after 35.9 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Jan after 35.6 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Jan after 36.2 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Jan after 37.2 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jan after 37.1 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Jan after 36.3 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Jan after 37.8 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jan after 34.6 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Jan after 33.6 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Jan after 33.3 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jan 2024
After · 24 Jan 2024

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 · 141Every 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 Chereponi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 January 2024 and 17 January 2024: 7 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 4,637 hectares (46.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Saboba (3,541 ha, 2.0 %); Chereponi (969 ha, 0.7 %); Gushegu (157 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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

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.