Skip to content
worldfires
TH · Thailand · →

Ban Phaeng fire, April 2026 Thailand

Out · last detection 16 Apr 2026, 05:53 UTC

The fire started on 7 April 2026 in Ban Phaeng, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,121 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 10th largest in Nakhon Phanom Province since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 768 in Thailand in 2026, of 880.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,121ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
7 Apr 2026 – 15 Apr 2026
Municipalities hit
0
districts
Started on
7 Apr
2026
Heat detections
31
in a single hotspot: 10 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
88MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Apr 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Apr15 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

78910111213141516

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
41km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.1 mm on 19 Apr.

This area had burned before

96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 413 ha in 2016, 76 ha in 2017, 407 ha in 2018, 373 ha in 2019, 498 ha in 2020, 21 ha in 2021, 155 ha in 2022, 1,087 ha in 2023, 60 ha in 2024, 248 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,079 ha that had burned before.

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)
7 Apr 37.7 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Apr 38.7 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Apr 37.6 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Apr 38.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Apr 38.4 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Apr 38.0 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Apr 38.2 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Apr 37.5 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Apr 37.8 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Apr after 38.1 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Apr after 37.3 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
18 Apr after 35.4 °C 50 % 26 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
19 Apr after 29.1 °C 72 % 22 km/h 10.1 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Mar 2026
After · 22 Apr 2026

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 14 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 120 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 79: 5.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak120 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10124 µg/m³
Optical depth2.28
56789101112131415161718
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 · 31Every 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 Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ban Phaeng fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 April 2026 and 15 April 2026: 9 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 1,121 hectares (11.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Thailand (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: 199 · 191

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 199 · 191.

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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.