Beng fire, 20 March 2019 Beng, Xay
The fire started on 20 March 2019 in Beng, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,543 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 68th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 28 in Laos in 2019, of 117.
- Burnt area
- 4,543ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 20 Mar 2019 – 1 Apr 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 187
- in a single hotspot: 412 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.9GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.8 mm on 3 Apr.
This area had burned before
64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,402 ha in 2016, 999 ha in 2017, 1,066 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,886 ha that had burned before.
- 1,402 ha Beng fire, April 2016 2,179 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 719 ha Xay fire, April 2017 3,130 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 623 ha Xay fire, April 2018 3,131 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 347 ha Beng fire, April 2018 3,292 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 279 ha Beng fire, April 2017 9,651 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 96 ha Beng fire, April 2018 2,709 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Beng where it started3,004 ha reached on 20 Mar1.8 %
-
1,563 ha reached on 20 Mar0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Mar | 32.5 °C | 29 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 21 Mar | 32.7 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Mar | 32.9 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Mar | 34.0 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Mar | 30.6 °C | 46 % | 46 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 25 Mar | 32.1 °C | 48 % | 38 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 26 Mar | 32.4 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Mar | 32.5 °C | 41 % | 41 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 28 Mar | 32.3 °C | 31 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Mar | 33.2 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Mar | 33.1 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 31 Mar | 33.6 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Apr | 34.0 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Apr after | 32.4 °C | 38 % | 41 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Apr after | 31.0 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 4.8 mm | Very low 5 |
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.
Detections table · 187Every 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 Beng fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 March 2019 to 1 April 2019 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 March 2019 to 26 March 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,543 hectares (45.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Beng (3,004 ha, 1.8 %); Xay (1,563 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Laos (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.
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 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.