How long did the Khlong Lan fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 March 2016 and 23 March 2016: 15 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 13,720 hectares (137.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Khlong Lan (13,452 ha, 9.2 %); Umphang (187 ha, 0.0 %); Pang Sila Thong (153 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.

TH · Thailand · 2016-03-09 → 2016-03-23

Khlong Lan fire, 9 March 2016 Khlong Lan, Umphang, Pang Sila Thong

Out · last detection 23 Mar 2016, 18:43 UTC

The fire started on 9 March 2016 in Khlong Lan, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,720 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Kamphaeng Phet Province since 2016 (of 66 with a page). Number 4 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area: 13,720ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 15days; 9 Mar 2016 – 23 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 9 Mar; 2016
Heat detections: 520; in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 3.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Mar 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Mar23 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

32km/h · peak gust

32%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 27 Mar.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Khlong Lan where it started

13,452 ha reached on 7 Mar

9.2 %
Umphang

187 ha reached on 13 Mar

0.0 %
Pang Sila Thong

153 ha reached on 19 Mar

0.2 %

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)
2 Mar	28.7 °C	32 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
3 Mar	29.2 °C	36 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
4 Mar	29.5 °C	47 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
5 Mar	30.2 °C	51 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
6 Mar	30.6 °C	51 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
7 Mar	31.2 °C	48 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
8 Mar	34.0 °C	34 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
9 Mar	33.2 °C	34 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
10 Mar	32.6 °C	42 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
11 Mar	31.3 °C	51 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
12 Mar	31.4 °C	53 %	31 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 17
13 Mar	32.7 °C	37 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
14 Mar	32.2 °C	44 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
15 Mar	33.1 °C	41 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
16 Mar	33.2 °C	33 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
17 Mar	33.5 °C	33 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
18 Mar	33.9 °C	39 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
19 Mar	33.5 °C	35 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
20 Mar	33.7 °C	36 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
21 Mar	34.1 °C	38 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
22 Mar	34.9 °C	35 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
23 Mar	34.0 °C	35 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
24 Mar after	33.0 °C	37 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
25 Mar after	31.2 °C	47 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
26 Mar after	29.7 °C	52 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
27 Mar after	29.1 °C	57 %	32 km/h	2.5 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Mar 2016

After · 30 Mar 2016

Before After

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 · 520Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Khlong Lan fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 March 2016 and 23 March 2016: 15 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 13,720 hectares (137.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Khlong Lan (13,452 ha, 9.2 %); Umphang (187 ha, 0.0 %); Pang Sila Thong (153 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned