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Li fire, 13 March 2018 Li, Sam Ngao

Out · last detection 20 Mar 2018, 18:10 UTC

The fire started on 13 March 2018 in Li, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,649 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 211th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 62 in Thailand in 2018, of 144.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.4 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
1,649ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
13 Mar 2018 – 20 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
13 Mar
2018
Heat detections
56
in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
232MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Mar20 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
31km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 744 ha in 2016, 993 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,214 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Li where it started
    830 ha reached on 13 Mar
    0.5 %
  2. Sam Ngao
    827 ha reached on 13 Mar
    0.3 %

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)
13 Mar 32.3 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Mar 31.6 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Mar 32.1 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Mar 32.2 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Mar 32.6 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Mar 33.0 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Mar 33.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Mar 33.5 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Mar after 33.3 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Mar after 31.0 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Mar after 28.4 °C 51 % 29 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 20
24 Mar after 30.9 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
25 Mar after 31.2 °C 43 % 19 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
26 Mar after 31.6 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Mar after 31.4 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Mar after 33.0 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Mar after 32.4 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
30 Mar after 32.7 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Mar 2018
After · 27 Mar 2018

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 · 56Every 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 13 March 2018 and 20 March 2018: 8 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 1,649 hectares (16.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Li (830 ha, 0.5 %); Sam Ngao (827 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.