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Mae Chaem fire, 16 April 2016 Mae Chaem, Mae La Noi

Out · last detection 20 Apr 2016, 07:27 UTC

The fire started on 16 April 2016 in Mae Chaem, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,827 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 89th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 92 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area
2,827ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
16 Apr 2016 – 19 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
16 Apr
2016
Heat detections
71
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
888MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Apr19 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
44km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

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
    2,586 ha reached on 16 Apr
    0.9 %
  2. Mae La Noi
    254 ha reached on 11 Apr
    0.2 %

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)
11 Apr 35.6 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Apr 34.8 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Apr 34.6 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
14 Apr 34.9 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Apr 35.3 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
16 Apr 36.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Apr 36.2 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Apr 35.2 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
19 Apr 36.1 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Apr after 35.9 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Apr after 35.7 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Apr after 32.0 °C 33 % 53 km/h 0.7 mm High 35
23 Apr after 33.6 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.5 mm High 35
24 Apr after 34.0 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Apr after 35.3 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Apr after 36.0 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Apr after 37.2 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
28 Apr after 37.0 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
29 Apr after 34.6 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Apr 2016
After · 26 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 · 71Every 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 16 April 2016 and 19 April 2016: 4 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 2,827 hectares (28.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mae Chaem (2,586 ha, 0.9 %); Mae La Noi (254 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.