Hot fire, 19 March 2026 Hot, Chom Thong
The fire started on 19 March 2026 in Hot, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,880 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 167th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 410 in Thailand in 2026, of 880.
- Burnt area
- 1,880ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 19 Mar 2026 – 23 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 19 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 38
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 8
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 243MW
- 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
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 539 ha in 2017, 114 ha in 2018, 676 ha in 2019, 1,631 ha in 2020, 175 ha in 2021, 1,230 ha in 2023, 874 ha in 2024, 51 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,851 ha that had burned before.
- 1,223 ha Hot fire, February 2023 3,794 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 985 ha Hot fire, January 2020 1,360 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 664 ha Hot fire, March 2024 1,321 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 591 ha Chom Thong fire, January 2020 2,140 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 18 ha Chom Thong fire, March 2024 1,595 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hot where it started1,710 ha reached on 20 Mar1.1 %
-
181 ha reached on 21 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Mar | 34.3 °C | 40 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 20 Mar | 33.9 °C | 42 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 21 Mar | 34.7 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 22 Mar | 34.4 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 23 Mar | 34.5 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 Mar after | 35.0 °C | 34 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 25 Mar after | 35.1 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 Mar after | 36.0 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Mar after | 36.0 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 28 Mar after | 36.0 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 29 Mar after | 36.2 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 31 Mar after | 35.8 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 1 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 2 Apr after | 37.0 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
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 17 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 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 · 38Every 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 Hot fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 March 2026 and 23 March 2026: 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 1,880 hectares (18.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hot (1,710 ha, 1.1 %); Chom Thong (181 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
- 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
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.