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Hoon fire, 9 March 2019 Hoon, Pakbeng

Out · last detection 1 Apr 2019, 06:11 UTC

The fire started on 9 March 2019 in Hoon, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,774 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 46th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 13 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
5,774ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
9 Mar 2019 – 1 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
9 Mar
2019
Heat detections
203
in a single hotspot: 153 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Mar1 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

91011141516171920212223242526272930311

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
47km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 3 Apr.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,067 ha in 2016, 2,227 ha in 2017, 1,125 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,715 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Hoon where it started
    4,643 ha reached on 9 Mar
    2.2 %
  2. Pakbeng
    1,160 ha reached on 19 Mar
    0.9 %

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)
9 Mar 31.1 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Mar 30.0 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Mar 31.3 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Mar 31.2 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Mar 31.4 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Mar 31.8 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Mar 31.5 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Mar 31.4 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 Mar 32.3 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
18 Mar 31.7 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
19 Mar 29.7 °C 44 % 43 km/h 0.4 mm High 22
20 Mar 32.7 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
21 Mar 32.7 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Mar 32.5 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Mar 33.7 °C 22 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Mar 30.6 °C 44 % 47 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
25 Mar 32.1 °C 47 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
26 Mar 32.4 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Mar 32.1 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
28 Mar 31.8 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Mar 32.5 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.8 mm High 28
30 Mar 32.6 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
31 Mar 33.4 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Apr 33.5 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Apr after 32.0 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Apr after 32.1 °C 39 % 35 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Mar 2019
After · 8 Apr 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 · 203Every 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 9 March 2019 to 1 April 2019 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 March 2019 to 27 March 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,774 hectares (57.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hoon (4,643 ha, 2.2 %); Pakbeng (1,160 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 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.