Hoon fire, March 2022 Hoon
The fire started on 21 March 2022 in Hoon, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,087 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 122th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 28 in Laos in 2022, of 75.
- Burnt area
- 3,087ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 21 Mar 2022 – 28 Mar 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 21 Mar
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 79
- in a single hotspot: 78 MW
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 4.6 mm on 29 Mar.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,557 ha in 2016, 1,917 ha in 2017, 1,242 ha in 2018, 1,004 ha in 2019, 737 ha in 2020, 391 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,543 ha that had burned before.
- 1,557 ha Hoon fire, March 2016 4,558 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,076 ha Hoon fire, April 2017 2,113 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 840 ha Hoon fire, March 2017 2,665 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 384 ha Hoon fire, March 2020 9,258 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 206 ha Hoon fire, February 2021 3,050 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hoon where it started3,101 ha reached on 21 Mar1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Mar | 31.7 °C | 47 % | 34 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 22 Mar | 31.0 °C | 56 % | 32 km/h | 8.6 mm | Very low 0 |
| 23 Mar | 27.1 °C | 84 % | 34 km/h | 12.7 mm | Very low 0 |
| 24 Mar | 30.3 °C | 64 % | 43 km/h | 4.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 25 Mar | 33.3 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very low 2 |
| 26 Mar | 34.7 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 27 Mar | 33.4 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 28 Mar | 29.3 °C | 68 % | 37 km/h | 4.9 mm | Very low 0 |
| 29 Mar after | 26.5 °C | 75 % | 36 km/h | 4.6 mm | Very low 0 |
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 · 79Every 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 · 19 km away
- 13,326 haHoon8 April 2018 · 7 days · 22 km away
- 12,233 haPha Oudom28 March 2016 · 22 days · 24 km away
- 9,809 haHoon16 March 2023 · 22 days · 30 km away
- 14,815 haHoon22 March 2026 · 27 days · 34 km away
- 11,424 haPha Oudom21 March 2019 · 13 days · 36 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 21 March 2022 to 28 March 2022 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 March 2022 to 28 March 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,087 hectares (30.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Hoon (3,101 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 8, class Low.
- 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.