Chomphet fire, 7 March 2020 Chomphet
The fire started on 7 March 2020 in Chomphet, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,838 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 82th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 293 with a page). Number 61 in Laos in 2020, of 169.
- Burnt area
- 3,838ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 7 Mar 2020 – 23 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 141
- in a single hotspot: 265 MW
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 24 Mar.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,071 ha in 2016, 1,553 ha in 2017, 1,016 ha in 2018, 1,591 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,856 ha that had burned before.
- 1,478 ha Chomphet fire, March 2019 2,946 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 964 ha Chomphet fire, April 2017 2,696 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 872 ha Chomphet fire, April 2018 3,018 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 559 ha Chomphet fire, March 2016 4,488 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 145 ha Chomphet fire, April 2018 2,276 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chomphet where it started3,861 ha reached on 7 Mar2.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Mar | 30.3 °C | 43 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 8 Mar | 32.6 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Mar | 32.7 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Mar | 33.6 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Mar | 31.4 °C | 40 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 12 Mar | 33.6 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 13 Mar | 33.7 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Mar | 33.3 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 15 Mar | 29.9 °C | 55 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 16 Mar | 30.7 °C | 52 % | 42 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Mar | 33.0 °C | 42 % | 44 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Mar | 34.1 °C | 35 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Mar | 32.3 °C | 40 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Mar | 30.2 °C | 50 % | 45 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 21 Mar | 31.1 °C | 40 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 22 Mar | 31.4 °C | 41 % | 43 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 23 Mar | 28.6 °C | 48 % | 43 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 24 Mar after | 30.0 °C | 46 % | 45 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 9 |
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 · 141Every 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 Chomphet fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 March 2020 to 23 March 2020 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 March 2020 to 16 March 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,838 hectares (38.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chomphet (3,861 ha, 2.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.