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Mae Chaem fire, 16 April 2016 Mae Chaem

Out · last detection 19 Apr 2016, 06:06 UTC

The fire started on 16 April 2016 in Mae Chaem, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,074 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 405th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 455 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area
1,074ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
16 Apr 2016 – 18 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Apr
2016
Heat detections
36
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
332MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Apr18 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

16171819

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
42km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 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
    1,078 ha reached on 16 Apr
    0.4 %

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)
16 Apr 36.7 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Apr 36.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Apr 35.6 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
19 Apr after 36.4 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Apr after 35.9 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Apr after 35.7 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Apr after 32.4 °C 38 % 56 km/h 0.7 mm High 31
23 Apr after 34.3 °C 37 % 53 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
24 Apr after 34.5 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Apr after 35.4 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Apr after 36.1 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Apr after 37.6 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Apr after 37.4 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Apr 2016
After · 25 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 · 36Every 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 18 April 2016: 3 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 1,074 hectares (10.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mae Chaem (1,078 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.