Mae Mo fire, March 2025 Mae Mo, Ngao
The fire started on 25 March 2025 in Mae Mo, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,059 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 180th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 202 with a page). Number 215 in Thailand in 2025, of 239.
The power measured by the satellite is low (9.8 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
- 1,059ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 25 Mar 2025 – 27 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 36
- in a single hotspot: 10 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 104MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.7 mm on 6 Apr.
This area had burned before
36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 315 ha in 2016, 116 ha in 2019, 3 ha in 2023, 14 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 378 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mae Mo where it started644 ha reached on 25 Mar0.6 %
-
420 ha reached on 26 Mar0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar | 36.1 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Mar | 36.3 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Mar | 36.2 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Mar after | 35.5 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 29 Mar after | 36.6 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Mar after | 36.0 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 31 Mar after | 33.8 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Apr after | 33.9 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Apr after | 34.6 °C | 41 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Apr after | 35.0 °C | 42 % | 29 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Apr after | 32.3 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 6 Apr after | 32.7 °C | 47 % | 31 km/h | 8.7 mm | Very low 5 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 29 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 92 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 61: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 36Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mae Mo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 March 2025 and 27 March 2025: 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 1,059 hectares (10.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mae Mo (644 ha, 0.6 %); Ngao (420 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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
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.