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Mae Phrik fire, February 2019 แม่พริก · Sam Ngao, Li, Mae Phrik

Out · last detection 14 Mar 2019, 19:19 UTC

The fire started on 5 February 2019 in Mae Phrik, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,139 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 216 with a page). Number 3 in Thailand in 2019, of 385.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sam Ngao · 2017Sam Ngao · 2017Li · 2018Li · 2016

Burnt area
21,139ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
5 Feb 2019 – 13 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
5 Feb
2019
Heat detections
1,033
in a single hotspot: 91 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
112MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Feb13 Mar
14 Mar 2019

How it evolved, day by day

6 Feb 2019 · 2 MW · 3 7 Feb 2019 · 2 MW · 1 8 Feb 2019 · 49 MW · 14 9 Feb 2019 · 114 MW · 16 10 Feb 2019 · 401 MW · 103 11 Feb 2019 · 111 MW · 41 12 Feb 2019 · 3 MW · 2 13 Feb 2019 · 15 MW · 8 14 Feb 2019 · 1 MW · 1 15 Feb 2019 · 19 MW · 8 16 Feb 2019 · 73 MW · 18 17 Feb 2019 · 96 MW · 45 18 Feb 2019 · 21 MW · 13 19 Feb 2019 · 98 MW · 19 20 Feb 2019 · 191 MW · 50 21 Feb 2019 · 422 MW · 85 22 Feb 2019 · 378 MW · 101 23 Feb 2019 · 212 MW · 60 24 Feb 2019 · 159 MW · 23 25 Feb 2019 · 189 MW · 53 26 Feb 2019 · 87 MW · 39 27 Feb 2019 · 26 MW · 26 28 Feb 2019 · 30 MW · 12 1 Mar 2019 · 101 MW · 21 2 Mar 2019 · 211 MW · 38 3 Mar 2019 · 114 MW · 27 4 Mar 2019 · 185 MW · 53 5 Mar 2019 · 260 MW · 53 6 Mar 2019 · 225 MW · 28 7 Mar 2019 · 18 MW · 7 8 Mar 2019 · 83 MW · 18 9 Mar 2019 · 153 MW · 18 10 Mar 2019 · 18 MW · 6 11 Mar 2019 · 49 MW · 11 12 Mar 2019 · 20 MW · 7 13 Mar 2019 · 3 MW · 2 14 Mar 2019 · 6 MW · 3
6 Feb 12 Feb 18 Feb 21 Feb 24 Feb 2 Mar 8 Mar 14 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
48km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,095 ha in 2016, 11,421 ha in 2017, 7,250 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,661 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (211 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Sam Ngao สามเงา
    10,511 ha reached on 8 Feb
    3.8 %
  2. Li ลี้
    8,682 ha reached on 8 Feb
    4.8 %
  3. Mae Phrik แม่พริก where it started
    2,049 ha reached on 6 Feb
    3.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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 Feb 33.8 °C 23 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 Feb 34.1 °C 21 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Feb 34.1 °C 29 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Feb 34.7 °C 23 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 Feb 34.3 °C 21 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Feb 34.3 °C 22 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Feb 32.4 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Feb 29.3 °C 58 % 26 km/h 1.7 mm Low 8
13 Feb 32.6 °C 37 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Feb 32.9 °C 38 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Feb 32.4 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
16 Feb 32.2 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 19
17 Feb 31.0 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
18 Feb 31.0 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Feb 32.3 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Feb 33.5 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Feb 34.0 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Feb 34.4 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Feb 34.7 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Feb 34.8 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Feb 34.6 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Feb 34.4 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Feb 34.0 °C 29 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Feb 33.7 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Mar 34.6 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Mar 34.5 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Mar 34.2 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Mar 33.4 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Mar 33.3 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Mar 34.6 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Mar 33.9 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Mar 33.9 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Mar 33.6 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Mar 33.5 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Mar 34.3 °C 19 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Mar 34.5 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Mar 34.7 °C 26 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Mar after 34.9 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Mar after 34.4 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Mar after 35.3 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Mar after 35.7 °C 28 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Mar after 35.2 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Mar after 33.7 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
20 Mar after 35.9 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Mar after 36.1 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Mar after 35.9 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Mar after 35.8 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jan 2019
After · 20 Mar 2019

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 · 1,033Every 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 Phrik fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 February 2019 to 13 March 2019 (37 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 February 2019 to 10 March 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 21,139 hectares (211.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sam Ngao (10,511 ha, 3.8 %); Li (8,682 ha, 4.8 %); Mae Phrik (2,049 ha, 3.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 10 March 2019 → 13 March 2019.
  2. Start date: 6 February 2019 → 5 February 2019.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 6 February 2019 to 10 March 2019. 1,033 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.