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Mad fire, 2 April 2019 Mad

Out · last detection 15 Apr 2019, 06:48 UTC

The fire started on 2 April 2019 in Mad, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,066 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 22th largest in Vientiane since 2016 (of 74 with a page). Number 22 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
5,066ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
2 Apr 2019 – 15 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
2 Apr
2019
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 175 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Energy released
4.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Apr15 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

347891011121315

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
32km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,006 ha in 2016, 1,802 ha in 2017, 1,905 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,163 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mad where it started
    5,088 ha reached on 3 Apr
    3.2 %

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)
2 Apr 34.8 °C 52 % 24 km/h 2.0 mm Low 6
3 Apr 33.9 °C 50 % 24 km/h 3.0 mm Very low 4
4 Apr 33.5 °C 59 % 26 km/h 3.9 mm Very low 2
5 Apr 33.3 °C 56 % 28 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 3
6 Apr 33.9 °C 58 % 31 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 2
7 Apr 34.9 °C 51 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Low 6
8 Apr 38.2 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Apr 38.5 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
10 Apr 37.4 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
11 Apr 39.3 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
12 Apr 38.6 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Apr 38.8 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
14 Apr 39.3 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Apr 38.1 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm High 24
16 Apr after 38.6 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Apr after 38.9 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
18 Apr after 39.5 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 Apr after 40.3 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
20 Apr after 40.6 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Apr after 39.9 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Apr after 38.3 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
23 Apr after 38.2 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.7 mm High 27
24 Apr after 39.7 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Apr after 38.8 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Mar 2019
After · 22 Apr 2019

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 · 167Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mad fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 April 2019 to 15 April 2019 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 April 2019 to 13 April 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,066 hectares (50.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mad (5,088 ha, 3.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Laos (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.

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.

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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.