How long did the Offinso North fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2016 and 13 February 2016: 22 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 20,797 hectares (208.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Offinso North (8,491 ha, 8.9 %); Offinso (8,454 ha, 14 %); Ejura-Sekyedumase (3,986 ha, 3.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.

GH · Ghana · 2016-01-23 → 2016-02-13

Offinso North fire, 23 January 2016 Offinso North, Offinso, Ejura-Sekyedumase

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2016, 13:08 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2016 in Offinso North, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,797 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Ashanti since 2016 (of 103 with a page). Number 3 in Ghana in 2016, of 122.

Burnt area: 20,797ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 22days; 23 Jan 2016 – 13 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 23 Jan; 2016
Heat detections: 1,443; in a single hotspot: 128 MW
Danger at start: 51; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 10.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 14 Feb 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

2324252627282930311234567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

40km/h · peak gust

3%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 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

Offinso North where it started

8,491 ha reached on 16 Jan

8.9 %
Offinso

8,454 ha reached on 24 Jan

14 %
Ejura-Sekyedumase

3,986 ha reached on 16 Jan

3.0 %

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)
23 Jan	35.6 °C	5 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
24 Jan	33.6 °C	3 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
25 Jan	34.3 °C	13 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
26 Jan	32.6 °C	7 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
27 Jan	33.7 °C	19 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
28 Jan	33.3 °C	9 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
29 Jan	33.2 °C	11 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
30 Jan	33.4 °C	9 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
31 Jan	34.9 °C	11 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
1 Feb	34.4 °C	6 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
2 Feb	34.8 °C	6 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
3 Feb	35.0 °C	7 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
4 Feb	35.2 °C	15 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
5 Feb	34.4 °C	12 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
6 Feb	37.0 °C	11 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
7 Feb	35.8 °C	12 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
8 Feb	35.8 °C	13 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
9 Feb	35.5 °C	13 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
10 Feb	35.8 °C	7 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
11 Feb	36.4 °C	8 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
12 Feb	36.6 °C	11 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
13 Feb	35.4 °C	13 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
14 Feb after	36.3 °C	21 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
15 Feb after	35.1 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 43
16 Feb after	35.9 °C	30 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
17 Feb after	38.2 °C	24 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
18 Feb after	36.8 °C	28 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
19 Feb after	37.6 °C	23 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
20 Feb after	37.9 °C	21 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
21 Feb after	36.6 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
22 Feb after	38.6 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Feb after	37.3 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Jan 2016

After · 20 Feb 2016

Before After

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 · 1,443Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ghana ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Offinso North fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2016 and 13 February 2016: 22 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 20,797 hectares (208.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Offinso North (8,491 ha, 8.9 %); Offinso (8,454 ha, 14 %); Ejura-Sekyedumase (3,986 ha, 3.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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.

Where it burned