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Mae Mo fire, March 2016 Mae Mo, Mueang Lampang

Out · last detection 9 Mar 2016, 07:15 UTC

The fire started on 5 March 2016 in Mae Mo, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,122 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 163th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 202 with a page). Number 420 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.5 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
1,122ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
5 Mar 2016 – 9 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
5 Mar
2016
Heat detections
29
in a single hotspot: 9 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
79MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Mar9 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

56789

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
27km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 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 Mo where it started
    566 ha reached on 6 Mar
    0.5 %
  2. Mueang Lampang
    562 ha reached on 5 Mar
    0.5 %

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)
5 Mar 34.6 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
6 Mar 34.8 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
7 Mar 36.2 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Mar 36.9 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Mar 37.2 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Mar after 37.2 °C 30 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Mar after 36.5 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Mar after 35.3 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Mar after 36.7 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Mar after 37.3 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Mar after 37.9 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Mar after 37.4 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Mar after 37.8 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Mar after 37.7 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Mar after 37.4 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Feb 2016
After · 16 Mar 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 · 29Every 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 Mo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 March 2016 and 9 March 2016: 5 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 1,122 hectares (11.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mae Mo (566 ha, 0.5 %); Mueang Lampang (562 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, class 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.