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Mae Chaem fire, April 2020 Mae Chaem, Chom Thong

Out · last detection 8 Apr 2020, 18:47 UTC

The fire started on 1 April 2020 in Mae Chaem, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,123 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 385th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 539 in Thailand in 2020, of 666.

The power measured by the satellite is low (7.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,123ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
1 Apr 2020 – 8 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Apr
2020
Heat detections
36
in a single hotspot: 8 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
60MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Apr8 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

12345678

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
41km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 14 Apr.

This area had burned before

10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 108 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mae Chaem where it started
    740 ha reached on 29 Mar
    0.3 %
  2. Chom Thong
    388 ha reached on 2 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)
29 Mar 31.9 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Mar 32.2 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Mar 33.2 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Apr 32.9 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Apr 32.4 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Apr 33.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Apr 33.1 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Apr 32.9 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Apr 30.7 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Apr 31.5 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Apr 31.7 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Apr after 32.3 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Apr after 32.0 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Apr after 32.3 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Apr after 32.7 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Apr after 33.0 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Apr after 27.6 °C 46 % 30 km/h 2.3 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Mar 2020
After · 15 Apr 2020

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 1 April 2020 and 8 April 2020: 8 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 1,123 hectares (11.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mae Chaem (740 ha, 0.3 %); Chom Thong (388 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 41 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.