Yendi fire, 17 January 2026 Yendi, Saboba
The fire started on 17 January 2026 in Yendi, Ghana, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,311 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 262 with a page). Number 6 in Ghana in 2026, of 179.
- Burnt area
- 14,311ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 17 Jan 2026 – 2 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 385
- in a single hotspot: 46 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,558 ha in 2016, 7,107 ha in 2017, 621 ha in 2018, 6,165 ha in 2019, 2,296 ha in 2020, 7,394 ha in 2021, 8,104 ha in 2022, 835 ha in 2023, 4,908 ha in 2024, 869 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,702 ha that had burned before.
- 4,010 ha Yendi fire, January 2024 4,694 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,740 ha Yendi fire, January 2022 6,773 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,414 ha Yendi fire, January 2017 3,933 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,887 ha Yendi fire, December 2022 3,606 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,182 ha Yendi fire, January 2019 2,697 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,100 ha Yendi fire, February 2016 2,082 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,081 ha Yendi fire, February 2020 2,158 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 898 ha Yendi fire, January 2024 2,790 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Yendi where it started10,971 ha reached on 10 Jan7.5 %
-
3,438 ha reached on 18 Jan2.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jan | 34.9 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Jan | 35.3 °C | 19 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Jan | 36.3 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Jan | 35.0 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Jan | 33.2 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 22 Jan | 33.4 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Jan | 34.3 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 24 Jan | 35.7 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Jan | 35.8 °C | 12 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 26 Jan | 35.3 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 27 Jan | 36.0 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 28 Jan | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Jan | 36.0 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 30 Jan | 37.4 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 31 Jan | 36.9 °C | 17 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Feb | 37.5 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Feb | 37.9 °C | 26 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Feb after | 38.0 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Feb after | 39.1 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Feb after | 37.6 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Feb after | 38.9 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Feb after | 38.5 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 10 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 11 Feb after | 36.7 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Feb after | 37.5 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
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 18 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 116 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 96: 6.4 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 · 385Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Yendi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 January 2026 and 2 February 2026: 17 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 14,311 hectares (143.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yendi (10,971 ha, 7.5 %); Saboba (3,438 ha, 2.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.
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.