Chomphet fire, 18 March 2026 Chomphet, Nga
The fire started on 18 March 2026 in Chomphet, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,330 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 22th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 293 with a page). Number 47 in Laos in 2026, of 287.
- Burnt area
- 8,330ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 33days
- 18 Mar 2026 – 19 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 366
- in a single hotspot: 336 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.3GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.5 mm on 23 Apr.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,825 ha in 2016, 1,581 ha in 2017, 1,354 ha in 2018, 1,217 ha in 2019, 4,058 ha in 2020, 1,924 ha in 2021, 1,678 ha in 2022, 4,335 ha in 2023, 1,686 ha in 2024, 702 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,734 ha that had burned before.
- 2,324 ha Chomphet fire, March 2023 12,472 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,927 ha Nga fire, March 2023 4,083 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,413 ha Chomphet fire, April 2022 2,782 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,374 ha Chomphet fire, March 2021 2,805 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,008 ha Chomphet fire, March 2016 4,488 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 807 ha Chomphet fire, April 2018 2,276 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 490 ha Nga fire, April 2018 2,253 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 358 ha Nga fire, April 2017 4,399 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chomphet where it started4,678 ha reached on 18 Mar3.5 %
-
3,696 ha reached on 19 Mar1.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Mar | 30.3 °C | 55 % | 24 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very low 3 |
| 19 Mar | 31.4 °C | 45 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 20 Mar | 31.8 °C | 47 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 21 Mar | 32.2 °C | 42 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 10 |
| 22 Mar | 30.4 °C | 55 % | 45 km/h | 0.6 mm | Low 8 |
| 23 Mar | 33.1 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 24 Mar | 33.3 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 25 Mar | 32.4 °C | 41 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 Mar | 34.0 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 27 Mar | 34.0 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 28 Mar | 34.0 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 Mar | 32.9 °C | 40 % | 50 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 Mar | 33.4 °C | 37 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 31 Mar | 33.6 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 1 Apr | 33.1 °C | 43 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 2 Apr | 33.1 °C | 44 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Apr | 34.9 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 4 Apr | 34.4 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 5 Apr | 33.8 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 6 Apr | 33.8 °C | 44 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Apr | 35.1 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Apr | 35.2 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 9 Apr | 35.0 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 10 Apr | 34.7 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Apr | 34.3 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 12 Apr | 35.0 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 13 Apr | 35.6 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Apr | 34.5 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Apr | 35.1 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Apr | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Apr | 35.6 °C | 35 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Apr | 31.9 °C | 51 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 19 Apr | 30.5 °C | 60 % | 40 km/h | 4.5 mm | Very low 4 |
| 20 Apr after | 31.2 °C | 55 % | 44 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 8 |
| 21 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 49 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 22 Apr after | 34.8 °C | 46 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Apr after | 31.6 °C | 54 % | 39 km/h | 7.5 mm | Very low 3 |
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 214 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 153: 10 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 · 366Every 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 18 March 2026 to 19 April 2026 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 March 2026 to 13 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,330 hectares (83.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chomphet (4,678 ha, 3.5 %); Nga (3,696 ha, 1.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.
Report an error
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.