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GH · Ghana · –

Sene East fire, 26 December 2022 Sene East

Out · last detection 27 Jan 2023, 13:02 UTC

The fire started on 26 December 2022 in Sene East, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,276 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Bono East since 2016 (of 153 with a page). Number 3 in Ghana in 2022, of 118.

Compare with…

Suggestions: North East Gonja · 2018Sene East · 2016Sene East · 2020Sene East · 2016

Burnt area
21,276ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
26 Dec 2022 – 27 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Dec
2022
Heat detections
809
in a single hotspot: 227 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Average daily power
334MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Dec27 Jan
27 Jan 2023

How it evolved, day by day

26 Dec 2022 · 683 MW · 30 27 Dec 2022 · 39 MW · 3 28 Dec 2022 · 36 MW · 5 29 Dec 2022 · 76 MW · 12 30 Dec 2022 · 378 MW · 44 31 Dec 2022 · 200 MW · 19 1 Jan 2023 · 58 MW · 11 2 Jan 2023 · 71 MW · 12 3 Jan 2023 · 184 MW · 23 4 Jan 2023 · 86 MW · 5 5 Jan 2023 · 12 MW · 4 6 Jan 2023 · 159 MW · 14 7 Jan 2023 · 126 MW · 26 8 Jan 2023 · 120 MW · 25 9 Jan 2023 · 1,591 MW · 82 10 Jan 2023 · 2,003 MW · 113 11 Jan 2023 · 703 MW · 56 12 Jan 2023 · 854 MW · 79 13 Jan 2023 · 38 MW · 16 14 Jan 2023 · 361 MW · 49 15 Jan 2023 · 149 MW · 26 16 Jan 2023 · 16 MW · 4 17 Jan 2023 · 34 MW · 10 18 Jan 2023 · 2,024 MW · 104 19 Jan 2023 · 102 MW · 10 20 Jan 2023 · 97 MW · 7 21 Jan 2023 · 72 MW · 7 22 Jan 2023 · 16 MW · 4 24 Jan 2023 · 25 MW · 4 26 Jan 2023 · 16 MW · 3 27 Jan 2023 · 22 MW · 2
26 Dec 2 Jan 9 Jan 18 Jan 24 Jan

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
37km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 6 Feb.

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,167 ha in 2016, 6,083 ha in 2017, 8,982 ha in 2018, 5,985 ha in 2019, 6,722 ha in 2020, 4,107 ha in 2021, 5,671 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,418 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (213 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Sene East where it started
    21,777 ha reached on 26 Dec
    4.9 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
26 Dec 33.5 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Dec 34.1 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Dec 34.3 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Dec 34.5 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Dec 34.8 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Dec 33.4 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Jan 33.4 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jan 33.2 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Jan 33.3 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Jan 33.2 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Jan 34.0 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Jan 34.1 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Jan 34.6 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Jan 35.7 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Jan 36.2 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Jan 34.7 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Jan 34.1 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Jan 35.5 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Jan 34.6 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Jan 33.9 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Jan 33.9 °C 39 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Jan 33.8 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Jan 34.7 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jan 35.3 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jan 34.9 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Jan 33.7 °C 43 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Jan 35.8 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Jan 36.5 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jan 33.7 °C 51 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Jan 36.0 °C 47 % 26 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
25 Jan 35.7 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Jan 34.9 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Jan 36.9 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Jan after 36.5 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Jan after 35.1 °C 44 % 23 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
30 Jan after 37.1 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jan after 35.7 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Feb after 37.1 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Feb after 35.3 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Feb after 36.7 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Feb after 37.1 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Feb after 36.5 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Feb after 37.5 °C 38 % 30 km/h 1.1 mm High 30

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 29.2, a minimum humidity of 35% and 22 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 34.

FWI at the start 29.2
Minimum humidity 35 %
Days without rain 22
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

North East Gonja fire, December 2018
2,014 ha 12 days FWI 28.0 Min. humidity 35 % 106 km away, in 2018

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

15 days
median duration
2,570 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 8 of 34 had it)

It was 8.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 33 days, against 15 days.

None of its 34 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 26 of 34, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

1.1 mmfirst rain
6 Feb10 days after it ended
37km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 27 Jan, and on 6 Feb 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 8 of 34, with a median of 2.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Dec 2022
After · 3 Feb 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 10 January 2023 the air beside the fire reached 246 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 129: 8.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak246 µg/m³
Days over the guideline28 days
PM10357 µg/m³
Optical depth1.43
27 Dec2 Jan8 Jan14 Jan20 Jan
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 809Every 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 Sene East fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 December 2022 to 27 January 2023 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 December 2022 to 20 January 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 21,276 hectares (212.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sene East (21,777 ha, 4.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 34. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 2,570 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 34 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 26 of 34, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 20 January 2023 → 27 January 2023.
  2. Start date: 29 December 2022 → 26 December 2022.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 December 2022 to 20 January 2023. 809 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.