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Kham fire, 16 March 2016 Kham

Out · last detection 23 Mar 2016, 06:12 UTC

The fire started on 16 March 2016 in Kham, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,150 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 31th largest in Xiangkhouang since 2016 (of 107 with a page). Number 34 in Laos in 2016, of 143.

Burnt area
4,150ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
16 Mar 2016 – 23 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Mar
2016
Heat detections
180
in a single hotspot: 159 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Mar23 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920212223

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

28°high
49km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.1 mm on 24 Mar.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Kham where it started
    4,171 ha reached on 16 Mar
    2.0 %

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)
16 Mar 26.2 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
17 Mar 27.8 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 Mar 27.1 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
19 Mar 26.9 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
20 Mar 27.2 °C 36 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Mar 26.7 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Mar 27.6 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
23 Mar 26.5 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
24 Mar after 16.7 °C 81 % 36 km/h 6.1 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Mar 2016
After · 30 Mar 2016

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 · 180Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kham fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 March 2016 to 23 March 2016 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 March 2016 to 22 March 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,150 hectares (41.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kham (4,171 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.8 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
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.

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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.