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Mae Sot fire, 8 April 2018 Mae Sot

Out · last detection 12 Apr 2018, 06:48 UTC

The fire started on 8 April 2018 in Mae Sot, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,065 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 148th largest in Tak Province since 2016 (of 499 with a page). Number 45 in Thailand in 2018, of 144.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.2 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
2,065ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
8 Apr 2018 – 12 Apr 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
8 Apr
2018
Heat detections
51
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
536MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Apr 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Apr12 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

8101112

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
48km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,422 ha in 2016, 482 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,383 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mae Sot where it started
    2,078 ha reached on 8 Apr
    1.3 %

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)
3 Apr 33.2 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 13
4 Apr 32.4 °C 47 % 25 km/h 1.3 mm Low 11
5 Apr 33.6 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 18
6 Apr 33.5 °C 35 % 18 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
7 Apr 27.4 °C 56 % 48 km/h 2.5 mm Low 7
8 Apr 28.6 °C 43 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
9 Apr 32.7 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Apr 35.2 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Apr 36.3 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Apr 36.7 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Apr after 36.9 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
14 Apr after 38.1 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Apr after 38.1 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Apr after 38.1 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.7 mm High 32
17 Apr after 35.2 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
18 Apr after 34.7 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Apr after 33.5 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
20 Apr after 34.2 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
21 Apr after 35.5 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Apr after 35.9 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Apr 2018
After · 19 Apr 2018

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 · 51Every 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 Sot fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2018 and 12 April 2018: 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 2,065 hectares (20.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mae Sot (2,078 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.