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Hoon fire, 25 February 2021 Hoon

Out · last detection 17 Mar 2021, 05:46 UTC

The fire started on 25 February 2021 in Hoon, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,050 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 125th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 26 in Laos in 2021, of 86.

Burnt area
3,050ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
25 Feb 2021 – 17 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
25 Feb
2021
Heat detections
130
in a single hotspot: 119 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Mar 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Feb17 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

345678910111314151617

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
44km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 21 Mar.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,553 ha in 2016, 1,772 ha in 2017, 974 ha in 2018, 1,148 ha in 2019, 1,053 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,829 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Hoon where it started
    3,065 ha reached on 3 Mar
    1.5 %

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)
25 Feb 32.4 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
26 Feb 32.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
27 Feb 31.1 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Feb 30.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
1 Mar 32.0 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Mar 32.3 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Mar 25.6 °C 65 % 44 km/h 2.6 mm Very low 3
4 Mar 29.4 °C 56 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm Low 6
5 Mar 32.3 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Mar 31.9 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Mar 30.2 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
8 Mar 29.2 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
9 Mar 30.2 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
10 Mar 30.6 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
11 Mar 31.3 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Mar 30.6 °C 46 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
13 Mar 31.0 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Mar 30.4 °C 49 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 14
15 Mar 31.7 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
16 Mar 33.4 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Mar 33.1 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Mar after 32.9 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Mar after 34.0 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Mar after 33.9 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
21 Mar after 33.4 °C 42 % 34 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Feb 2021
After · 24 Mar 2021

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 · 130Every 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 25 February 2021 to 17 March 2021 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 March 2021 to 10 March 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,050 hectares (30.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Hoon (3,065 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.