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GH · Ghana · –

Sene West fire, 4 January 2025 Sene West

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2025, 13:57 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2025 in Sene West, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,151 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 134th largest in Bono East since 2016 (of 153 with a page). Number 32 in Ghana in 2025, of 36.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sene East · 2024Atebubu Amantin · 2024Sekyere Afram Plains North · 2022Sene West · 2020

Burnt area
2,151ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
4 Jan 2025 – 14 Jan 2025
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
4 Jan
2025
Heat detections
52
in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Average daily power
79MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan14 Jan
13 Jan 2025

How it evolved, day by day

7 Jan 2025 · 4 MW · 2 12 Jan 2025 · 169 MW · 23 13 Jan 2025 · 62 MW · 27
7 Jan 12 Jan 13 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
31km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 681 ha in 2016, 168 ha in 2017, 91 ha in 2018, 210 ha in 2019, 1,385 ha in 2020, 2,330 ha in 2022, 7 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,125 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.4% of the area of London (22 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 West where it started
    2,164 ha reached on 7 Jan
    0.7 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 16 % of the area in Ghana

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
4 Jan 36.9 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Jan 36.9 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Jan 37.0 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Jan 37.2 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Jan 36.5 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Jan 35.8 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Jan 34.0 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Jan 36.3 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Jan 35.2 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Jan 36.2 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Jan 36.7 °C 26 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Jan after 36.3 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Jan after 36.7 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Jan after 34.7 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jan after 34.3 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Jan after 36.2 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Jan after 35.9 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jan after 36.7 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Jan after 36.5 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jan after 37.5 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jan after 36.7 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 35.8, a minimum humidity of 25% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 22.

FWI at the start 35.8
Minimum humidity 25 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Sene East fire, January 2024
2,164 ha 4 days FWI 37.2 Min. humidity 24 % 21 km away, in 2024

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

13 days
median duration
2,861 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 3 of 22 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,151 ha against a median of 2,861 ha) and lasted 11 days, against 13 days.

In 19 of 22, 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 2.8 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
31km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 3 of 22, with a median of 2.8 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 · 28 Dec 2024
After · 21 Jan 2025

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 13 January 2025 the air beside the fire reached 178 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 133: 8.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak178 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10375 µg/m³
Optical depth1.17
9 Jan11 Jan13 Jan15 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 · 52Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 January 2025 to 14 January 2025 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 January 2025 to 13 January 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,151 hectares (21.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sene West (2,164 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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: 22. Their median duration was 13 days and their median area 2,861 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 19 of 22, 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 2.8 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: 13 January 2025 → 14 January 2025.
  2. Start date: 11 January 2025 → 4 January 2025.

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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 11 January 2025 to 13 January 2025. 52 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 2025, 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.