Mad fire, 27 March 2020 Mad, Meun, Feuang
The fire started on 27 March 2020 in Mad, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,255 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Vientiane since 2016 (of 74 with a page). Number 9 in Laos in 2020, of 169.
- Burnt area
- 10,255ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 27 Mar 2020 – 12 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 408
- in a single hotspot: 349 MW
- Danger at start
- 10
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 11.6GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,008 ha in 2016, 4,792 ha in 2017, 3,813 ha in 2018, 5,912 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,148 ha that had burned before.
- 2,696 ha Mad fire, April 2019 5,066 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,514 ha Mad fire, April 2018 3,470 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,387 ha Mad fire, April 2017 7,343 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,126 ha Mad fire, April 2016 2,233 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,065 ha Mad fire, April 2017 7,925 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 911 ha Meun fire, April 2019 5,160 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 124 ha Meun fire, April 2018 3,180 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mad where it started9,987 ha reached on 27 Mar6.4 %
-
298 ha reached on 28 Mar0.3 %
-
14 ha reached on 29 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Mar | 36.7 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 28 Mar | 36.9 °C | 35 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 29 Mar | 37.9 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 30 Mar | 38.6 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 31 Mar | 39.0 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Apr | 38.4 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 2 Apr | 35.8 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 3 Apr | 36.4 °C | 48 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 4 Apr | 36.7 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Apr | 35.3 °C | 51 % | 34 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 6 Apr | 33.2 °C | 55 % | 34 km/h | 3.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 7 Apr | 31.2 °C | 64 % | 30 km/h | 2.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 8 Apr | 33.4 °C | 49 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 9 Apr | 32.2 °C | 55 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 10 Apr | 34.1 °C | 50 % | 31 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 11 |
| 11 Apr | 36.2 °C | 41 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 12 Apr | 35.0 °C | 48 % | 37 km/h | 9.9 mm | Very low 3 |
| 13 Apr after | 28.6 °C | 53 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 7 |
| 14 Apr after | 31.7 °C | 50 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 15 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 47 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 16 Apr after | 34.8 °C | 47 % | 29 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 17 Apr after | 36.6 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 18 Apr after | 34.1 °C | 47 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 19 Apr after | 37.3 °C | 41 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 20 Apr after | 38.4 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 21 Apr after | 40.4 °C | 33 % | 24 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 23 |
| 22 Apr after | 38.1 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
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.
Detections table · 408Every 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 Mad fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 March 2020 to 12 April 2020 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 March 2020 to 6 April 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,255 hectares (102.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mad (9,987 ha, 6.4 %); Meun (298 ha, 0.3 %); Feuang (14 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
- 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.
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.