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Mion fire, 23 January 2024 Mion, Yendi

Out · last detection 27 Jan 2024, 13:58 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2024 in Mion, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,788 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 114th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 262 with a page). Number 61 in Ghana in 2024, of 115.

Burnt area
2,788ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
23 Jan 2024 – 26 Jan 2024
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
23 Jan
2024
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
678MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jan 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan26 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627

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
40km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,157 ha in 2017, 850 ha in 2018, 1,383 ha in 2019, 1,607 ha in 2020, 463 ha in 2021, 304 ha in 2022, 2,122 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,765 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mion where it started
    2,613 ha reached on 23 Jan
    1.0 %
  2. Yendi
    194 ha reached on 23 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)
23 Jan 35.9 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Jan 36.5 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Jan 34.4 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Jan 33.5 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
27 Jan after 33.2 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Jan after 33.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Jan after 34.5 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Jan after 35.2 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Jan after 35.4 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Feb after 35.3 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Feb after 34.3 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Feb after 33.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
4 Feb after 34.2 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Feb after 33.4 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jan 2024
After · 2 Feb 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 · 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 Mion fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2024 and 26 January 2024: 4 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 2,788 hectares (27.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mion (2,613 ha, 1.0 %); Yendi (194 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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
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.