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Mae Chaem fire, 13 April 2016 Mae Chaem, Khun Yuam

Out · last detection 23 Apr 2016, 06:31 UTC

The fire started on 13 April 2016 in Mae Chaem, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,275 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 66th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 73 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area
3,275ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
13 Apr 2016 – 22 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
13 Apr
2016
Heat detections
108
in a single hotspot: 101 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Apr22 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
55km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 1 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mae Chaem where it started
    3,280 ha reached on 12 Apr
    1.2 %
  2. Khun Yuam
    16 ha
    0.0 %

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)
12 Apr 32.9 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Apr 33.0 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
14 Apr 33.6 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.4 mm High 35
15 Apr 33.7 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
16 Apr 34.8 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Apr 34.8 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Apr 34.0 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 38
19 Apr 34.5 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Apr 34.2 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
21 Apr 33.5 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 42
22 Apr 30.3 °C 38 % 55 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 20
23 Apr after 32.0 °C 35 % 55 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
24 Apr after 32.4 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Apr after 33.6 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
26 Apr after 34.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
27 Apr after 35.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Apr after 35.7 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
29 Apr after 33.5 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm High 25
30 Apr after 31.9 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
1 May after 31.3 °C 43 % 40 km/h 4.4 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Apr 2016
After · 29 Apr 2016

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 · 108Every 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 Mae Chaem fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 April 2016 and 22 April 2016: 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 3,275 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mae Chaem (3,280 ha, 1.2 %); Khun Yuam (16 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.