Hot fire, 11 April 2026 Hot
The fire started on 11 April 2026 in Hot, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,512 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 104th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 301 in Thailand in 2026, of 880.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.8 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
- 2,512ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 11 Apr 2026 – 20 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 70
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 265MW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.3 mm on 25 Apr.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 305 ha in 2016, 390 ha in 2017, 145 ha in 2018, 480 ha in 2019, 1,446 ha in 2020, 834 ha in 2021, 4 ha in 2022, 812 ha in 2023, 667 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,997 ha that had burned before.
- 649 ha Hot fire, March 2024 1,321 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 586 ha Hot fire, January 2021 1,104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 424 ha Hot fire, January 2020 1,360 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 398 ha Hot fire, January 2020 1,420 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 350 ha Chom Thong fire, January 2020 1,747 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 312 ha Hot fire, February 2023 3,794 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 32 ha Chom Thong fire, January 2020 2,140 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hot where it started2,527 ha reached on 13 Apr1.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Mar | 34.0 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 29 Mar | 34.2 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 Mar | 34.2 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Mar | 33.8 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Apr | 34.2 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 2 Apr | 34.9 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Apr | 34.9 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 4 Apr | 33.4 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Apr | 34.3 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 6 Apr | 33.7 °C | 44 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 7 Apr | 33.4 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Apr | 34.5 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 9 Apr | 33.8 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Apr | 34.2 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 11 Apr | 34.0 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 12 Apr | 34.4 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 13 Apr | 35.3 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Apr | 35.4 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Apr | 35.7 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Apr | 35.1 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Apr | 34.7 °C | 37 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 18 Apr | 34.4 °C | 39 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Apr | 34.7 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Apr | 34.4 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Apr after | 34.6 °C | 43 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 22 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Apr after | 33.9 °C | 47 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 24 Apr after | 34.8 °C | 45 % | 21 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 24 |
| 25 Apr after | 29.6 °C | 61 % | 29 km/h | 17.3 mm | Very low 1 |
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 12 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 92 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 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 · 70Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,715 haHot27 March 2026 · 11 days · 6 km away
- 5,065 haChom Thong29 March 2024 · 10 days · 20 km away
- 21,007 haHot22 March 2026 · 23 days · 21 km away
- 6,142 haDoi Tao23 March 2026 · 19 days · 23 km away
- 5,960 haBan Hong22 March 2026 · 18 days · 23 km away
- 6,733 haMae Chaem23 February 2024 · 18 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Hot fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 April 2026 and 20 April 2026: 10 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 2,512 hectares (25.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Hot (2,527 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
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.