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Hang Chat fire, April 2019 Hang Chat, Mae Tha

Out · last detection 2 May 2019, 06:29 UTC

The fire started on 27 April 2019 in Hang Chat, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,088 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 169th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 202 with a page). Number 433 in Thailand in 2019, of 503.

Burnt area
1,088ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
27 Apr 2019 – 2 May 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
27 Apr
2019
Heat detections
29
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
226MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 May 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Apr2 May

How it evolved, day by day

2728293012

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

40°high
32km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 3 May.

This area had burned before

50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 528 ha in 2016, 45 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 545 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Hang Chat where it started
    1,001 ha reached on 27 Apr
    1.6 %
  2. Mae Tha
    94 ha reached on 2 May
    0.1 %

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)
27 Apr 38.4 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Apr 38.6 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Apr 39.7 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Apr 39.8 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 May 39.2 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 May 39.1 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 May after 38.6 °C 34 % 40 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 20 Apr 2019
After · 9 May 2019

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 · 29Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Hang Chat fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 April 2019 and 2 May 2019: 6 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 1,088 hectares (10.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hang Chat (1,001 ha, 1.6 %); Mae Tha (94 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 199 · 191.

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.