Li fire, 23 March 2026 Li, Thung Hua Chang
The fire started on 23 March 2026 in Li, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,595 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 97th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 287 in Thailand in 2026, of 880.
The power measured by the satellite is low (24.6 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
- 2,595ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 23 Mar 2026 – 30 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 59
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 192MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 44 ha in 2016, 751 ha in 2017, 294 ha in 2019, 215 ha in 2020, 3 ha in 2022, 335 ha in 2024, 1,034 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,749 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Li where it started2,542 ha reached on 23 Mar1.4 %
-
71 ha reached on 27 Mar0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Mar | 35.2 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 24 Mar | 35.7 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Mar | 35.8 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Mar | 36.7 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 27 Mar | 36.9 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 28 Mar | 36.6 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Mar | 36.6 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Mar | 36.7 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Mar after | 36.6 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Apr after | 37.1 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Apr after | 37.1 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 4 Apr after | 35.7 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Apr after | 37.0 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 6 Apr after | 36.8 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Apr after | 36.9 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Apr after | 37.4 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 9 Apr after | 36.4 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 26 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.5 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 · 59Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Li fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2026 and 30 March 2026: 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 2,595 hectares (26.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Li (2,542 ha, 1.4 %); Thung Hua Chang (71 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.