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Karaga fire, 22 December 2018 Karaga, East Mamprusi

Out · last detection 28 Dec 2018, 13:58 UTC

The fire started on 22 December 2018 in Karaga, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,032 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 89th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 262 with a page). Number 17 in Ghana in 2018, of 59.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.4 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
3,032ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
22 Dec 2018 – 28 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
22 Dec
2018
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
422MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Dec28 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728

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
37km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 650 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Karaga where it started
    2,886 ha reached on 23 Dec
    0.9 %
  2. East Mamprusi
    169 ha reached on 28 Dec
    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)
22 Dec 33.5 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Dec 33.5 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Dec 33.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Dec 32.8 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Dec 33.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Dec 35.0 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Dec 36.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Dec after 34.5 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Dec after 34.8 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
31 Dec after 34.9 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
1 Jan after 35.0 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
2 Jan after 34.6 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Jan after 34.0 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Jan after 33.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
5 Jan after 34.2 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Jan after 30.9 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Jan after 34.0 °C 13 % 35 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 · 15 Dec 2018
After · 4 Jan 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 · 93Every 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 22 December 2018 and 28 December 2018: 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 3,032 hectares (30.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Karaga (2,886 ha, 0.9 %); East Mamprusi (169 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 37 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.

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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.