How long did the Ban Rai fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 March 2016 and 25 March 2016: 25 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 36,669 hectares (366.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ban Rai (36,812 ha, 11 %); Umphang (42 ha, 0.0 %); Thong Pha Phum (2 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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.

TH · Thailand · 2016-03-01 → 2016-03-25

Ban Rai fire, 1 March 2016 บ้านไร่ · Ban Rai, Umphang, Thong Pha Phum

Out · last detection 24 Mar 2016, 18:24 UTC

The fire started on 1 March 2016 in Ban Rai, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,669 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Uthai Thani Province since 2016 (of 73 with a page). Number 2 in Thailand in 2016, of 387.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Ban Rai · 2019 Ban Rai · 2026 Ban Rai · 2020 Ban Rai · 2016

Burnt area: 36,669ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 25days; 1 Mar 2016 – 25 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 1 Mar; 2016
Heat detections: 1,685; in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start: 14; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 382MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Mar25 Mar

Play back 24 Mar 2016

How it evolved, day by day

1 Mar 5 Mar 9 Mar 13 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 21 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

45km/h · peak gust

16%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 24.6 mm on 27 Mar.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 23% of the area of London (367 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

Ban Rai บ้านไร่ where it started

36,812 ha

11 %
Umphang อุ้มผาง

42 ha

0.0 %
Thong Pha Phum ทองผาภูมิ

2 ha

0.0 %

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 2015

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
16 Feb	30.2 °C	46 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
17 Feb	29.8 °C	46 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 14
18 Feb	30.5 °C	41 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
19 Feb	31.9 °C	36 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
20 Feb	31.8 °C	27 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
21 Feb	29.4 °C	48 %	31 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 15
22 Feb	30.9 °C	38 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
23 Feb	31.0 °C	41 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
24 Feb	27.6 °C	58 %	40 km/h	3.4 mm	Very low 3
25 Feb	25.8 °C	50 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
26 Feb	26.2 °C	46 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
27 Feb	26.6 °C	43 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
28 Feb	28.4 °C	40 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
29 Feb	28.2 °C	42 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
1 Mar	27.2 °C	25 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
2 Mar	28.8 °C	29 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
3 Mar	30.9 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
4 Mar	32.6 °C	29 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
5 Mar	32.4 °C	33 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
6 Mar	32.8 °C	35 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
7 Mar	33.8 °C	33 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
8 Mar	34.7 °C	25 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
9 Mar	35.6 °C	16 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
10 Mar	34.5 °C	26 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
11 Mar	35.6 °C	28 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
12 Mar	34.5 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
13 Mar	34.1 °C	24 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
14 Mar	35.5 °C	26 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
15 Mar	36.1 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
16 Mar	34.9 °C	21 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
17 Mar	35.9 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
18 Mar	36.3 °C	17 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
19 Mar	36.3 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
20 Mar	36.3 °C	22 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
21 Mar	35.5 °C	26 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
22 Mar	35.0 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
23 Mar	34.2 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
24 Mar	35.7 °C	22 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
25 Mar	32.4 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.9 mm	High 23
26 Mar after	31.8 °C	36 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
27 Mar after	30.4 °C	50 %	31 km/h	24.6 mm	Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 Feb 2016

After · 1 Apr 2016

Before After

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 · 1,685Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ban Rai fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 March 2016 and 25 March 2016: 25 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 36,669 hectares (366.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ban Rai (36,812 ha, 11 %); Umphang (42 ha, 0.0 %); Thong Pha Phum (2 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,685 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 2015, 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 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.

Where it burned