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Chomphet fire, 31 March 2016 Chomphet

Out · last detection 16 Apr 2016, 07:02 UTC

The fire started on 31 March 2016 in Chomphet, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,488 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 64th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 293 with a page). Number 29 in Laos in 2016, of 143.

Burnt area
4,488ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
31 Mar 2016 – 16 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
31 Mar
2016
Heat detections
153
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Mar16 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

3113456789111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
44km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 18 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Chomphet where it started
    4,514 ha reached on 31 Mar
    3.4 %

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)
31 Mar 31.7 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
1 Apr 31.9 °C 51 % 44 km/h 1.4 mm Low 11
2 Apr 30.5 °C 55 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 13
3 Apr 32.7 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
4 Apr 35.1 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Apr 35.1 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Apr 35.2 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Apr 35.9 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Apr 34.2 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
9 Apr 33.0 °C 55 % 44 km/h 2.0 mm Low 9
10 Apr 36.7 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Apr 37.6 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Apr 37.6 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Apr 36.3 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Apr 37.7 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Apr 37.4 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Apr 36.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Apr after 36.4 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Apr after 34.4 °C 46 % 34 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Mar 2016
After · 23 Apr 2016

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 · 153Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chomphet fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 March 2016 to 16 April 2016 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 April 2016 to 9 April 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,488 hectares (44.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chomphet (4,514 ha, 3.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.

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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.