Li fire, 27 February 2023 Li, Mae Phrik
The fire started on 27 February 2023 in Li, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,012 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 78th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 79 in Thailand in 2023, of 500.
The power measured by the satellite is low (20.1 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
- 3,012ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 27 Feb 2023 – 8 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 104
- in a single hotspot: 20 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 230MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 12 Mar.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 197 ha in 2016, 1,936 ha in 2017, 160 ha in 2018, 2,402 ha in 2019, 2,687 ha in 2020, 2,096 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,983 ha that had burned before.
- 1,493 ha Li fire, February 2020 4,067 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 860 ha Li fire, March 2017 2,355 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 823 ha Li fire, March 2017 3,816 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 737 ha Li fire, February 2021 2,249 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 655 ha Sam Ngao fire, February 2019 21,139 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 579 ha Li fire, January 2020 1,064 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 442 ha Li fire, February 2019 1,767 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Li where it started3,006 ha reached on 21 Feb1.7 %
-
20 ha reached on 22 Feb0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Feb | 31.1 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 22 Feb | 31.1 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 23 Feb | 31.7 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 24 Feb | 32.9 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 25 Feb | 29.8 °C | 43 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Feb | 28.5 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 27 Feb | 28.3 °C | 36 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Feb | 30.1 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 1 Mar | 32.0 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Mar | 32.4 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Mar | 31.9 °C | 35 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Mar | 30.5 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Mar | 30.6 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 6 Mar | 31.6 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Mar | 32.7 °C | 32 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 8 Mar | 33.9 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Mar after | 33.4 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 10 Mar after | 33.3 °C | 43 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 11 Mar after | 33.1 °C | 44 % | 19 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 12 Mar after | 33.0 °C | 44 % | 28 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 14 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 2 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 104Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 28,586 haLi20 March 2026 · 24 days · 11 km away
- 21,139 haSam Ngao6 February 2019 · 33 days · 17 km away
- 12,196 haSam Ngao1 March 2024 · 19 days · 17 km away
- 45,311 haSam Ngao21 March 2026 · 35 days · 19 km away
- 20,120 haLi23 March 2026 · 33 days · 22 km away
- 18,226 haSam Ngao13 March 2025 · 19 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Li fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 February 2023 and 8 March 2023: 10 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 3,012 hectares (30.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Li (3,006 ha, 1.7 %); Mae Phrik (20 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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
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.