Hoon fire, 8 March 2020 Hoon, Pakbeng
The fire started on 8 March 2020 in Hoon, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,258 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 19th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 11 in Laos in 2020, of 169.
- Burnt area
- 9,258ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 8 Mar 2020 – 23 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 302
- in a single hotspot: 287 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.0GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,763 ha in 2016, 1,313 ha in 2017, 1,289 ha in 2018, 3,027 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,507 ha that had burned before.
- 1,609 ha Hoon fire, March 2016 4,558 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 878 ha Hoon fire, March 2019 2,519 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 872 ha Hoon fire, March 2016 2,023 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 430 ha Hoon fire, March 2017 3,023 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 276 ha Hoon fire, February 2019 2,021 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 237 ha Hoon fire, April 2017 2,113 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Pakbeng fire, March 2019 6,914 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hoon where it started9,021 ha reached on 9 Mar4.3 %
-
278 ha reached on 12 Mar0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Mar | 30.0 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Mar | 30.1 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Mar | 31.5 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 11 Mar | 31.4 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Mar | 31.8 °C | 21 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Mar | 32.1 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Mar | 32.2 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Mar | 28.7 °C | 44 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Mar | 29.7 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Mar | 32.1 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Mar | 32.0 °C | 23 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Mar | 31.4 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Mar | 29.7 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 1.8 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 21 Mar | 30.2 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Mar | 31.1 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Mar | 29.9 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Mar after | 29.8 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Mar after | 29.1 °C | 30 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Mar after | 31.2 °C | 19 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Mar after | 32.1 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Mar after | 32.6 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Mar after | 33.4 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Mar after | 33.4 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Mar after | 33.7 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Apr after | 34.1 °C | 19 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Apr after | 33.4 °C | 19 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
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.
Detections table · 302Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,870 haHoon10 March 2023 · 26 days · 11 km away
- 12,233 haPha Oudom28 March 2016 · 22 days · 26 km away
- 13,326 haHoon8 April 2018 · 7 days · 33 km away
- 11,424 haPha Oudom21 March 2019 · 13 days · 33 km away
- 10,361 haPha Oudom21 March 2020 · 23 days · 39 km away
- 9,809 haHoon16 March 2023 · 22 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Hoon fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 March 2020 to 23 March 2020 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 March 2020 to 16 March 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,258 hectares (92.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hoon (9,021 ha, 4.3 %); Pakbeng (278 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.