Mae Suai fire, 28 March 2026 แม่สรวย · Mae Suai, Fang, Chai Prakan
The fire started on 28 March 2026 in Mae Suai, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,912 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Chiang Rai Province since 2016 (of 272 with a page). Number 41 in Thailand in 2026, of 811.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 14,912ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 28 Mar 2026 – 16 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 378
- in a single hotspot: 47 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 68MW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 19 Apr.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,745 ha in 2016, 54 ha in 2017, 13,249 ha in 2019, 7,130 ha in 2020, 690 ha in 2021, 1,725 ha in 2022, 13,615 ha in 2023, 3,836 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,124 ha that had burned before.
- 5,043 ha Mae Suai fire, March 2019 3,928 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,553 ha Mae Suai fire, March 2020 2,827 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,909 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2023 6,985 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,890 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2023 2,246 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,058 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2019 3,003 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,047 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2016 1,579 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,978 ha Mae Suai fire, March 2020 4,563 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,912 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2024 1,558 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).
Bangkok boundary: geoBoundaries · OpenStreetMap, Wambacher · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
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).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
14,530 ha10 %
-
Fang ฝาง367 ha0.4 %
-
Chai Prakan ไชยปราการ44 ha0.1 %
-
Wiang Pa Pao เวียงป่าเป้า41 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Mar | 33.0 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 25 Mar | 33.1 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Mar | 33.6 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 27 Mar | 34.0 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Mar | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Mar | 34.3 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Mar | 34.0 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Mar | 34.8 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Apr | 34.1 °C | 33 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Apr | 34.7 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Apr | 35.8 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Apr | 34.3 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Apr | 35.2 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 6 Apr | 34.1 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Apr | 34.5 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 8 Apr | 34.9 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 9 Apr | 34.3 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Apr | 34.6 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 11 Apr | 35.0 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Apr | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Apr | 35.6 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Apr | 35.5 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Apr | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Apr | 34.7 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Apr after | 34.8 °C | 31 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Apr after | 34.1 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 2.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
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 17 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 175 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 91: 6.1 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 · 378Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,293 haPhrao พร้าวMarch 2026 · 32 days · 16 km away
- 12,779 haWiang Pa Pao เวียงป่าเป้า23 March 2026 · 28 days · 20 km away
- 21,629 haMae Suai แม่สรวย8 April 2016 · 13 days · 23 km away
- 12,929 haWiang Pa Pao เวียงป่าเป้า22 March 2026 · 25 days · 29 km away
- 15,402 haPhrao พร้าว26 March 2026 · 26 days · 31 km away
- 23,457 haMae Lao แม่ลาว21 March 2023 · 31 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mae Suai fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 March 2026 and 16 April 2026: 20 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,912 hectares (149.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Mae Suai (14,530 ha, 10 %); Fang (367 ha, 0.4 %); Chai Prakan (44 ha, 0.1 %); Wiang Pa Pao (41 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Thailand (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.
Emergency number: 199 · 191
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 378 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.