Skip to content
worldfires
en
GH · Ghana · –

Tano North fire, February 2020 Tano North, Asutifi South, Asutifi North

Out · last detection 23 Feb 2020, 13:43 UTC

The fire started on 2 February 2020 in Tano North, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,286 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 36 in Ghana in 2020, of 111.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sunyani West · 2017Atebubu Amantin · 2017Tano North · 2016Tano North · 2025

Burnt area
3,286ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
2 Feb 2020 – 23 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
2 Feb
2020
Heat detections
236
in a single hotspot: 113 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
118MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Feb23 Feb
23 Feb 2020

How it evolved, day by day

2 Feb 2020 · 7 MW · 1 3 Feb 2020 · 492 MW · 17 4 Feb 2020 · 182 MW · 29 5 Feb 2020 · 26 MW · 24 7 Feb 2020 · 464 MW · 17 8 Feb 2020 · 85 MW · 14 9 Feb 2020 · 251 MW · 33 11 Feb 2020 · 27 MW · 3 12 Feb 2020 · 88 MW · 15 13 Feb 2020 · 118 MW · 19 15 Feb 2020 · 57 MW · 29 16 Feb 2020 · 66 MW · 24 17 Feb 2020 · 11 MW · 8 18 Feb 2020 · 3 MW · 1 21 Feb 2020 · 1 MW · 1 23 Feb 2020 · 2 MW · 1
3 Feb 7 Feb 12 Feb 17 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
35km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.4 mm on 3 Mar.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,719 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1% of the area of London (33 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. Tano North where it started
    2,708 ha reached on 2 Feb
    3.2 %
  2. Asutifi South
    440 ha reached on 9 Feb
    0.7 %
  3. Asutifi North
    159 ha reached on 7 Feb
    0.2 %

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 area0.25 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.25 hectares of 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)

Started with Very dry air: 18 % of the area in Ghana

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
2 Feb 37.3 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Feb 36.2 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Feb 36.0 °C 17 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Feb 35.7 °C 21 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Feb 35.6 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Feb 37.2 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Feb 37.8 °C 9 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Feb 35.8 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Feb 34.2 °C 46 % 27 km/h 1.0 mm High 26
11 Feb 35.8 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Feb 35.5 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Feb 35.7 °C 14 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Feb 36.3 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Feb 37.9 °C 11 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Feb 37.5 °C 19 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Feb 38.0 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Feb 38.2 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Feb 36.7 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.8 mm High 27
20 Feb 36.6 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 Feb 38.8 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Feb 36.2 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Feb 37.3 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Feb after 37.1 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Feb after 37.0 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Feb after 36.6 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Feb after 37.8 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Feb after 38.5 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Feb after 39.3 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Mar after 39.7 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Mar after 38.5 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
3 Mar after 35.4 °C 43 % 38 km/h 6.4 mm High 26

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 43.1, a minimum humidity of 9% and 21 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.

FWI at the start 43.1
Minimum humidity 9 %
Days without rain 21
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Sunyani West fire, February 2017
3,446 ha 4 days FWI 41.1 Min. humidity 11 % 50 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 24 Feb.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
2,928 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 11 of 23 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,286 ha against a median of 2,928 ha) and lasted 22 days, against 11 days.

In 12 of 23, 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 1.8 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

6.4 mmfirst rain
3 Mar9 days after it ended
35km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 23 Feb, and on 3 Mar 6.4 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 11 of 23, with a median of 1.8 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 · 26 Jan 2020
After · 1 Mar 2020

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 · 236Every 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 Tano North fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 February 2020 to 23 February 2020 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 February 2020 to 17 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,286 hectares (32.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tano North (2,708 ha, 3.2 %); Asutifi South (440 ha, 0.7 %); Asutifi North (159 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.
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: 23. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 2,928 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 12 of 23, 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 1.8 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: 17 February 2020 → 23 February 2020.
  2. Start date: 8 February 2020 → 2 February 2020.

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 8 February 2020 to 17 February 2020. 236 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.