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Li fire, 10 February 2021 Li

Out · last detection 16 Feb 2021, 19:00 UTC

The fire started on 10 February 2021 in Li, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,500 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 237th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 121 in Thailand in 2021, of 268.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.3 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
1,500ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
10 Feb 2021 – 15 Feb 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 Feb
2021
Heat detections
56
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
166MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Feb 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Feb15 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516

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
29km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 493 ha in 2016, 602 ha in 2017, 139 ha in 2018, 830 ha in 2019, 526 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,096 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Li where it started
    1,508 ha reached on 10 Feb
    0.8 %

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)
10 Feb 29.8 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Feb 32.3 °C 26 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Feb 33.6 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Feb 33.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Feb 34.0 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Feb 33.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Feb after 34.5 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Feb after 31.9 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
18 Feb after 31.4 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Feb after 30.7 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Feb after 32.0 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Feb after 33.5 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Feb after 34.0 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Feb after 32.9 °C 41 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Feb after 34.2 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Feb after 35.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Feb 2021
After · 22 Feb 2021

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 10 February 2021 and 15 February 2021: 6 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 1,500 hectares (15.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Li (1,508 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.