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Sene West fire, 3 January 2016 Sene West, Sene East

Out · last detection 9 Jan 2016, 12:43 UTC

The fire started on 3 January 2016 in Sene West, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,413 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 19th largest in Bono East since 2016 (of 193 with a page). Number 6 in Ghana in 2016, of 122.

Burnt area
10,413ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
3 Jan 2016 – 8 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
3 Jan
2016
Heat detections
295
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jan8 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

456789

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
41km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 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

  1. Sene West where it started
    9,408 ha reached on 1 Jan
    2.9 %
  2. Sene East
    1,065 ha reached on 6 Jan
    0.2 %

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)
3 Jan 33.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Jan 32.9 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Jan 34.3 °C 24 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Jan 32.6 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Jan 33.4 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Jan 35.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Jan after 35.3 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Jan after 36.0 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jan after 37.3 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Jan after 36.3 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Jan after 35.9 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Jan after 35.5 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Jan after 34.1 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Jan after 36.8 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Jan after 36.4 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jan after 36.9 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Dec 2015
After · 15 Jan 2016

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 · 295Every 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 West fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 January 2016 and 8 January 2016: 6 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 10,413 hectares (104.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sene West (9,408 ha, 2.9 %); Sene East (1,065 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.