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Chomphet fire, 14 March 2019 Chomphet

Out · last detection 2 Apr 2019, 05:52 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2019 in Chomphet, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,199 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 70th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 293 with a page). Number 32 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
4,199ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
14 Mar 2019 – 2 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Mar
2019
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 161 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar2 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

14151617182021222324252629303112

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
48km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 3 Apr.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 932 ha in 2017, 1,464 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,184 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chomphet where it started
    4,220 ha reached on 14 Mar
    3.2 %

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)
14 Mar 33.8 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Mar 32.4 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Mar 32.3 °C 51 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Mar 33.7 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
18 Mar 33.3 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Mar 32.1 °C 50 % 48 km/h 2.8 mm Low 8
20 Mar 33.7 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
21 Mar 35.2 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Mar 35.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Mar 36.0 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Mar 31.8 °C 49 % 45 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
25 Mar 33.2 °C 49 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
26 Mar 33.5 °C 50 % 34 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 16
27 Mar 32.5 °C 50 % 41 km/h 2.1 mm Low 9
28 Mar 33.3 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
29 Mar 33.8 °C 33 % 33 km/h 4.6 mm Low 7
30 Mar 34.5 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
31 Mar 34.9 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Apr 34.6 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 21
2 Apr 32.0 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Apr after 32.6 °C 45 % 32 km/h 1.6 mm Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Mar 2019
After · 9 Apr 2019

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 · 167Every 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 14 March 2019 to 2 April 2019 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 March 2019 to 26 March 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,199 hectares (42.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chomphet (4,220 ha, 3.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.