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Li fire, 1 February 2020 Li, Mae Phrik

Out · last detection 12 Feb 2020, 19:38 UTC

The fire started on 1 February 2020 in Li, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,067 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 50th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 74 in Thailand in 2020, of 666.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.9 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
4,067ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
1 Feb 2020 – 11 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Feb
2020
Heat detections
184
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
565MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Feb11 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

1234567891012

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
38km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 370 ha in 2016, 2,531 ha in 2017, 1,049 ha in 2018, 1,992 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,541 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Li where it started
    4,081 ha reached on 1 Feb
    2.3 %
  2. Mae Phrik
    4 ha
    0.0 %

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)
19 Jan 31.8 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 Jan 31.1 °C 45 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Jan 32.6 °C 39 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Jan 33.7 °C 36 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
23 Jan 33.5 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 Jan 32.5 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Jan 31.3 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Jan 29.9 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jan 29.2 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jan 29.7 °C 23 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Jan 30.7 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Jan 29.4 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Jan 31.3 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Feb 31.3 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Feb 32.2 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Feb 32.6 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Feb 32.3 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Feb 32.4 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Feb 32.2 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Feb 33.4 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Feb 32.3 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Feb 30.7 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Feb 31.1 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Feb 34.0 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Feb after 33.6 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Feb after 32.3 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Feb after 31.2 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Feb after 33.2 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Feb after 33.2 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Feb after 32.4 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Feb after 30.5 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Feb after 32.4 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Feb after 31.9 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Feb after 31.5 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jan 2020
After · 18 Feb 2020

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 · 184Every 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 1 February 2020 and 11 February 2020: 11 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 4,067 hectares (40.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Li (4,081 ha, 2.3 %); Mae Phrik (4 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 38 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.