Skip to content
worldfires
GH · Ghana · →

Karaga fire, December 2020 Karaga, Gushegu

Out · last detection 29 Dec 2020, 13:32 UTC

The fire started on 20 December 2020 in Karaga, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,453 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 30th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 262 with a page). Number 19 in Ghana in 2020, of 111.

Burnt area
4,453ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
20 Dec 2020 – 29 Dec 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
20 Dec
2020
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 165 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Dec 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Dec29 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

202223242526272829

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
34km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,605 ha in 2017, 1,020 ha in 2018, 1,044 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,872 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Karaga where it started
    4,447 ha reached on 17 Dec
    1.4 %
  2. Gushegu
    32 ha reached on 1 Jan
    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)
20 Dec 34.9 °C 27 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Dec 34.2 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Dec 34.5 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Dec 35.1 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Dec 35.2 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Dec 35.5 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Dec 34.3 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Dec 34.3 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Dec 33.6 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Dec 34.0 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Dec after 35.1 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Dec after 35.2 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Jan after 36.3 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Jan after 36.3 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Jan after 36.4 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Jan after 36.0 °C 37 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Jan after 36.6 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Jan after 36.6 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Jan after 36.3 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Jan after 36.9 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Dec 2020
After · 5 Jan 2021

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 · 143Every 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 20 December 2020 and 29 December 2020: 10 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 4,453 hectares (44.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Karaga (4,447 ha, 1.4 %); Gushegu (32 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.