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Hoon fire, 6 March 2019 Hoon, Beng

Out · last detection 21 Mar 2019, 06:17 UTC

The fire started on 6 March 2019 in Hoon, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,089 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 83th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 33 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
4,089ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
6 Mar 2019 – 21 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
6 Mar
2019
Heat detections
152
in a single hotspot: 228 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

691011121314151617182021

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
48km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,389 ha in 2016, 932 ha in 2017, 2,495 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,356 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Hoon where it started
    2,769 ha reached on 6 Mar
    1.3 %
  2. Beng
    1,340 ha reached on 14 Mar
    0.8 %

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)
6 Mar 29.8 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Mar 28.6 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
8 Mar 29.6 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Mar 29.9 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Mar 28.8 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Mar 30.1 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Mar 29.7 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Mar 30.2 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Mar 30.5 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Mar 29.8 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Mar 29.7 °C 45 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Mar 30.8 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
18 Mar 30.5 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
19 Mar 28.3 °C 47 % 45 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 12
20 Mar 31.5 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Mar 31.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Mar after 31.5 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Mar after 32.5 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar after 28.8 °C 49 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
25 Mar after 30.8 °C 46 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
26 Mar after 30.9 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
27 Mar after 31.0 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
28 Mar after 30.8 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Mar after 31.6 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
30 Mar after 31.5 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Mar after 32.1 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Feb 2019
After · 28 Mar 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 · 152Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Hoon fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 March 2019 to 21 March 2019 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 March 2019 to 16 March 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,089 hectares (40.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hoon (2,769 ha, 1.3 %); Beng (1,340 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.