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La fire, 2 April 2023 La, Khua

Out · last detection 17 Apr 2023, 18:49 UTC

The fire started on 2 April 2023 in La, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,343 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 74th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 59 in Laos in 2023, of 214.

Burnt area
4,343ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
2 Apr 2023 – 17 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
2 Apr
2023
Heat detections
150
in a single hotspot: 223 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Apr17 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

245678910111213141517

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
45km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.5 mm on 26 Apr.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,578 ha in 2016, 1,834 ha in 2017, 1,136 ha in 2019, 84 ha in 2020, 1,320 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,293 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. La where it started
    3,689 ha reached on 2 Apr
    3.0 %
  2. Khua
    677 ha reached on 6 Apr
    0.4 %

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 Apr 31.3 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Apr 31.3 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
4 Apr 31.6 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Apr 32.5 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Apr 33.1 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
7 Apr 32.1 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Apr 27.7 °C 56 % 40 km/h 1.9 mm Low 6
9 Apr 30.5 °C 57 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm Low 10
10 Apr 33.9 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Apr 34.3 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Apr 34.2 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Apr 33.9 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Apr 34.8 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Apr 34.4 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Apr 33.0 °C 47 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 23
17 Apr 34.1 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Apr after 36.0 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Apr after 36.5 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Apr after 36.1 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Apr after 36.0 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
22 Apr after 33.9 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm High 27
23 Apr after 33.6 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
24 Apr after 33.4 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
25 Apr after 33.9 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.5 mm High 29
26 Apr after 28.1 °C 58 % 36 km/h 7.5 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Mar 2023
After · 24 Apr 2023

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 · 150Every 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 La fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 April 2023 to 17 April 2023 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 April 2023 to 11 April 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,343 hectares (43.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: La (3,689 ha, 3.0 %); Khua (677 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
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

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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.