Chomphet fire, 22 March 2023 Nga, Chomphet
The fire started on 22 March 2023 in Chomphet, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,245 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 7th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 295 with a page). Number 10 in Laos in 2023, of 239.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Nga · 2020Nga · 2018Nga · 2021Nga · 2016
- Burnt area
- 18,245ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 33days
- 22 Mar 2023 – 23 Apr 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 643
- in a single hotspot: 342 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 482MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 22 Apr.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,579 ha in 2016, 1,810 ha in 2017, 7,099 ha in 2018, 3,114 ha in 2019, 7,205 ha in 2020, 5,293 ha in 2021, 3,280 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,453 ha that had burned before.
- 6,006 ha Nga fire, March 2020 7,209 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,464 ha Nga fire, April 2018 7,625 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,811 ha Nga fire, March 2021 3,740 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,765 ha Nga fire, April 2016 3,155 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,120 ha Nga fire, April 2018 2,710 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,693 ha Nga fire, April 2016 2,643 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,408 ha Nga fire, March 2019 2,078 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,042 ha Nga fire, April 2021 2,577 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
17,105 ha8.7 %
-
Chomphet where it started1,222 ha0.9 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 36.2 °C | 32 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Mar | 37.0 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Mar | 35.9 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Mar | 36.3 °C | 34 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Mar | 35.3 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 27 Mar | 34.7 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 28 Mar | 34.1 °C | 47 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 29 Mar | 34.0 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Mar | 33.2 °C | 51 % | 35 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 31 Mar | 34.6 °C | 42 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 1 Apr | 36.0 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Apr | 37.1 °C | 30 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Apr | 36.3 °C | 32 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Apr | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Apr | 36.4 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Apr | 36.2 °C | 35 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Apr | 36.2 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Apr | 33.9 °C | 50 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Apr | 35.2 °C | 50 % | 43 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Apr | 37.6 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 11 Apr | 38.4 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 12 Apr | 38.2 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 13 Apr | 38.0 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Apr | 38.9 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Apr | 37.2 °C | 44 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Apr | 36.2 °C | 49 % | 41 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Apr | 36.8 °C | 45 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Apr | 39.8 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Apr | 40.1 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Apr | 39.2 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Apr | 37.6 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Apr | 36.1 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 2.7 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 · 643Every 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 22 March 2023 to 23 April 2023 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 March 2023 to 16 April 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 18,245 hectares (182.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nga (17,105 ha, 8.7 %); Chomphet (1,222 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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
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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 March 2023 to 16 April 2023. 643 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.
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.