Hoon fire, 22 March 2026 Hoon, Pha Oudom, Nalae
The fire started on 22 March 2026 in Hoon, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,815 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 20 in Laos in 2026, of 287.
- Burnt area
- 14,815ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 27days
- 22 Mar 2026 – 17 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- districts
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 749
- in a single hotspot: 930 MW
- Danger at start
- 5
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 32.7GW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 19 Apr.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,085 ha in 2016, 3,218 ha in 2017, 3,423 ha in 2018, 2,177 ha in 2019, 4,377 ha in 2020, 2,291 ha in 2021, 1,405 ha in 2022, 2,568 ha in 2023, 3,134 ha in 2024, 3,318 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,219 ha that had burned before.
- 1,817 ha Pha Oudom fire, March 2016 12,233 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,485 ha Hoon fire, March 2024 3,436 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,180 ha Hoon fire, April 2018 3,213 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 699 ha Hoon fire, March 2021 2,620 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 651 ha Nalae fire, March 2023 2,370 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 366 ha Beng fire, April 2017 3,197 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 362 ha Hoon fire, April 2017 2,519 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 240 ha Hoon fire, March 2020 7,519 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hoon where it started13,490 ha reached on 22 Mar6.4 %
-
783 ha reached on 29 Mar0.5 %
-
512 ha reached on 22 Mar0.3 %
-
120 ha reached on 26 Mar0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 29.5 °C | 52 % | 40 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 5 |
| 23 Mar | 31.4 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 Mar | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 25 Mar | 31.8 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 26 Mar | 32.0 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 27 Mar | 32.3 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 28 Mar | 33.3 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 29 Mar | 31.9 °C | 32 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Mar | 32.2 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Mar | 32.2 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Apr | 31.8 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 2 Apr | 32.7 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Apr | 33.6 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 4 Apr | 32.9 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 5 Apr | 32.8 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 6 Apr | 32.8 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Apr | 32.9 °C | 39 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 8 Apr | 33.3 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Apr | 32.8 °C | 33 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Apr | 32.4 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 11 Apr | 32.5 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Apr | 33.5 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Apr | 34.3 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Apr | 33.8 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Apr | 34.1 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 16 Apr | 34.6 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Apr | 33.5 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Apr after | 31.7 °C | 39 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Apr after | 30.9 °C | 52 % | 37 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 13 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 18 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 239 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 171: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 749Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Hoon fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2026 and 17 April 2026: 27 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,815 hectares (148.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Hoon (13,490 ha, 6.4 %); Pha Oudom (783 ha, 0.5 %); Nalae (512 ha, 0.3 %); Beng (120 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.