Offinso North fire, January 2026 Offinso North, Tano South
The fire started on 23 January 2026 in Offinso North, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,824 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 30th largest in Ashanti since 2016 (of 103 with a page). Number 61 in Ghana in 2026, of 179.
The power measured by the satellite is low (29.8 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
- 3,824ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 23 Jan 2026 – 30 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 47
- in a single hotspot: 30 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 352MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.6 mm on 2 Feb.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,850 ha in 2016, 796 ha in 2018, 2,063 ha in 2019, 1,697 ha in 2020, 1,040 ha in 2022, 822 ha in 2024, 1,751 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,738 ha that had burned before.
- 1,762 ha Offinso North fire, January 2016 20,797 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,088 ha Offinso North fire, February 2016 5,860 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,040 ha Offinso North fire, January 2022 3,985 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 913 ha Offinso North fire, February 2019 2,636 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 869 ha Offinso North fire, February 2020 4,119 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 796 ha Offinso North fire, January 2018 2,287 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Offinso North where it started3,777 ha reached on 23 Jan4.0 %
-
71 ha0.2 %
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 | 34.5 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Jan | 34.6 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Jan | 35.4 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Jan | 35.4 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Jan | 35.4 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Jan | 34.5 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Jan | 34.7 °C | 34 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Jan | 34.1 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Jan after | 34.0 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Feb after | 32.8 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Feb after | 33.3 °C | 52 % | 27 km/h | 11.6 mm | Very low 3 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 27 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 84 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 61: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 47Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,860 haOffinso NorthFebruary 2016 · 12 days · 4 km away
- 4,119 haOffinso NorthFebruary 2020 · 16 days · 6 km away
- 20,797 haOffinso North23 January 2016 · 22 days · 17 km away
- 10,205 haOffinsoFebruary 2020 · 14 days · 22 km away
- 9,821 haAhafo Ano South WestJanuary 2016 · 18 days · 25 km away
- 4,611 haTano NorthFebruary 2025 · 7 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Offinso North fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2026 and 30 January 2026: 8 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 3,824 hectares (38.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Offinso North (3,777 ha, 4.0 %); Tano South (71 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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
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.