Chomphet fire, 19 March 2026 Chomphet, Xayabury, Luangprabang
The fire started on 19 March 2026 in Chomphet, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,166 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 47th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 293 with a page). Number 82 in Laos in 2026, of 287.
- Burnt area
- 5,166ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 32days
- 19 Mar 2026 – 19 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- districts
- Started on
- 19 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 145
- in a single hotspot: 384 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.3GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 20 Apr.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 451 ha in 2016, 25 ha in 2017, 531 ha in 2019, 1,094 ha in 2020, 2,869 ha in 2021, 1,871 ha in 2022, 4,188 ha in 2023, 737 ha in 2024, 1,111 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,822 ha that had burned before.
- 3,380 ha Chomphet fire, March 2023 6,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,368 ha Chomphet fire, March 2021 2,029 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,094 ha Chomphet fire, March 2020 8,362 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 534 ha Chomphet fire, April 2021 2,145 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 437 ha Chomphet fire, April 2016 2,131 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5 ha Chomphet fire, April 2022 2,222 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chomphet where it started4,852 ha reached on 19 Mar3.6 %
-
310 ha reached on 23 Mar0.1 %
-
25 ha0.0 %
-
2 ha reached on 23 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Mar | 34.6 °C | 41 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 20 Mar | 34.7 °C | 43 % | 29 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 11 |
| 21 Mar | 34.7 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 22 Mar | 33.3 °C | 57 % | 45 km/h | 1.3 mm | Low 7 |
| 23 Mar | 36.1 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Mar | 36.7 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 25 Mar | 35.5 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Mar | 37.5 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Mar | 37.7 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Mar | 37.2 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Mar | 35.5 °C | 41 % | 45 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 23 |
| 30 Mar | 37.0 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 31 Mar | 37.2 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 1 Apr | 36.4 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 2 Apr | 36.9 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Apr | 38.1 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Apr | 37.4 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Apr | 37.3 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 6 Apr | 36.9 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Apr | 37.7 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Apr | 38.2 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Apr | 38.6 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Apr | 38.1 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 11 Apr | 37.7 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Apr | 38.6 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Apr | 39.0 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Apr | 37.9 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Apr | 38.7 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 16 Apr | 39.8 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Apr | 38.3 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Apr | 35.7 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Apr | 33.0 °C | 60 % | 37 km/h | 7.8 mm | Very low 4 |
| 20 Apr after | 33.7 °C | 55 % | 41 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 6 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 18 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 158 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 132: 8.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 145Every 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 19 March 2026 to 19 April 2026 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 March 2026 to 15 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,166 hectares (51.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Chomphet (4,852 ha, 3.6 %); Xayabury (310 ha, 0.1 %); Luangprabang (25 ha, 0.0 %); Nan (2 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.