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Hot fire, February 2021 Hot

Out · last detection 17 Feb 2021, 06:10 UTC

The fire started on 13 February 2021 in Hot, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,945 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 161th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 87 in Thailand in 2021, of 268.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,945ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
13 Feb 2021 – 17 Feb 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
13 Feb
2021
Heat detections
72
in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
277MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Feb 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Feb17 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617

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
34km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 548 ha in 2016, 1,056 ha in 2017, 93 ha in 2018, 1,175 ha in 2019, 1,123 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,775 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Hot where it started
    1,955 ha reached on 13 Feb
    1.3 %

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)
6 Feb 32.5 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Feb 32.2 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
8 Feb 27.1 °C 56 % 34 km/h 9.0 mm Very low 1
9 Feb 29.2 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.8 mm Very low 5
10 Feb 29.0 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
11 Feb 32.1 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
12 Feb 33.1 °C 29 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Feb 33.4 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
14 Feb 33.5 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Feb 33.0 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Feb 33.9 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Feb 31.5 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 21
18 Feb after 30.2 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
19 Feb after 29.9 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 Feb after 30.9 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Feb after 33.3 °C 34 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
22 Feb after 32.9 °C 41 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
23 Feb after 32.7 °C 50 % 19 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 14
24 Feb after 33.6 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
25 Feb after 34.5 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Feb after 35.2 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Feb after 34.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Feb 2021
After · 24 Feb 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 · 72Every 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 Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Hot fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 February 2021 and 17 February 2021: 5 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 1,945 hectares (19.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Hot (1,955 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Thailand (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.

Emergency number: 199 · 191

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 199 · 191.

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.