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Li fire, 3 March 2017 Li

Out · last detection 9 Mar 2017, 19:00 UTC

The fire started on 3 March 2017 in Li, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,743 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 91th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 29 in Thailand in 2017, of 240.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.7 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
2,743ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
3 Mar 2017 – 9 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
3 Mar
2017
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
276MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Mar9 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

3456789

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
42km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 607 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Li where it started
    2,755 ha reached on 3 Mar
    1.5 %

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)
24 Feb 34.9 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Feb 34.8 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Feb 34.1 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Feb 33.3 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Feb 33.7 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Mar 33.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Mar 32.1 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Mar 34.2 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Mar 33.8 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Mar 34.1 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Mar 34.3 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Mar 34.2 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Mar 34.7 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Mar 32.5 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Mar after 33.3 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Mar after 34.8 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Mar after 35.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Mar after 35.4 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Mar after 35.0 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Mar after 35.5 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Mar after 35.6 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Mar after 34.0 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Mar after 34.3 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Mar after 34.5 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Feb 2017
After · 16 Mar 2017

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 · 82Every 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 Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Li fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 March 2017 and 9 March 2017: 7 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 2,743 hectares (27.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Li (2,755 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.