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Karaga fire, 9 December 2017 Karaga, Savelugu

Out · last detection 11 Dec 2017, 13:20 UTC

The fire started on 9 December 2017 in Karaga, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,755 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 119th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 262 with a page). Number 57 in Ghana in 2017, of 116.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,755ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
9 Dec 2017 – 11 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
9 Dec
2017
Heat detections
77
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
598MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Dec11 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

91011

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
39km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Karaga where it started
    1,779 ha reached on 9 Dec
    0.6 %
  2. Savelugu
    994 ha reached on 10 Dec
    0.6 %

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)
9 Dec 33.4 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Dec 33.2 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Dec 33.8 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Dec after 34.1 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Dec after 36.3 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Dec after 36.7 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Dec after 35.5 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Dec after 37.6 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Dec after 36.8 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Dec after 36.8 °C 16 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Dec after 34.9 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Dec after 34.4 °C 34 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Dec after 33.7 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Dec 2017
After · 18 Dec 2017

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 · 77Every 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 Karaga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 December 2017 and 11 December 2017: 3 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 2,755 hectares (27.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Karaga (1,779 ha, 0.6 %); Savelugu (994 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.

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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.