Burned area
satellite only2,246ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 11 Apr 2023 – 17 Apr 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
TH · Thailand · –
Mae Suai fire, 11 April 2023 แม่สรวย · Mae Suai
Out · last detection 16 Apr 2023, 06:39 UTC
The fire started on 11 April 2023 in Mae Suai, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,246 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 52th largest in Chiang Rai Province since 2016 (of 163 with a page). Number 90 in Thailand in 2023, of 369.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only7days
11 Apr 2023 to 17 Apr 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 16 Apr 2023, 06:39 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only11 Apr 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 11 Apr 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only79
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 69 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 11 Apr 2023 – 17 Apr 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only251MW
Total radiative power on 16 April 2023; hotspots that day: 8.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 16 Apr 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model36.8FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 21.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 11 Apr 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model38.5°C · 23% RH
High of 38.5 °C and minimum humidity of 23% on 14 April 2023; gusts of 31 km/h on 16 April 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 11 Apr 2023 – 17 Apr 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 150people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 1.9 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
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.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 16 April 2023 → 17 April 2023.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 2,246 ha
- Dates
- 11 Apr 2023 – 17 Apr 2023
- Name
- Mae Suai
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/mae-suai-2023-04-4?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire mae-suai-2023-04-4.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-04-11 | 19 | 94 | 37.3 | 20.2 | 26 | 10.2 | 29.5 | 0 | 36.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-04-12 | 25 | 163 | 37.1 | 20.8 | 24 | 8.4 | 26.3 | 0 | 35.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-04-13 | 23 | 141 | 37.5 | 20.4 | 28 | 9.4 | 29.9 | 0 | 36.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-04-14 | 1 | 3 | 38.5 | 20.2 | 23 | 10 | 25.9 | 0 | 37.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-04-15 | 3 | 10 | 38.4 | 20 | 21 | 7.7 | 24.5 | 0 | 36.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-04-16 | 8 | 251 | 37.6 | 20.5 | 25 | 9.8 | 31 | 0 | 38.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-04-17 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 22.3 | 28 | 9.8 | 29.2 | 0 | 38.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-04-18 | 0 | 0 | 38.7 | 22 | 27 | 9.6 | 29.2 | 0 | 38.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-19 | 0 | 0 | 37.3 | 22.7 | 28 | 10.4 | 33.5 | 0 | 39.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-20 | 0 | 0 | 37.5 | 22.3 | 27 | 11.7 | 31.7 | 0.3 | 40.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-21 | 0 | 0 | 37.3 | 21.2 | 28 | 8.2 | 32.8 | 0 | 37.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-22 | 0 | 0 | 36.2 | 21.1 | 28 | 11.7 | 33.8 | 0.7 | 33.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-23 | 0 | 0 | 37.3 | 20.2 | 21 | 11 | 31.7 | 0 | 39.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-24 | 0 | 0 | 34.8 | 20.6 | 31 | 7.6 | 23.8 | 0 | 34.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-25 | 0 | 0 | 36.5 | 20.6 | 24 | 7.4 | 23 | 0 | 34.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-26 | 0 | 0 | 34.4 | 22 | 32 | 9.5 | 29.5 | 0 | 35.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-27 | 0 | 0 | 36.9 | 20.4 | 28 | 8.9 | 28.4 | 0.6 | 32.7 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 2,246ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 11 Apr 2023 – 17 Apr 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Apr
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 79
- in a single hotspot: 69 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 110MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
11 Apr17 Apr
16 Apr 2023
How it evolved, day by day
11 Apr
13 Apr
16 Apr
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
38°high
31km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity
It had gone 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,099 ha in 2016, 18 ha in 2017, 2,181 ha in 2019, 1,605 ha in 2020, 180 ha in 2021, 668 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,210 ha that had burned before.
- 1,943 ha Mae Suai fire, March 2019 3,801 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,604 ha Mae Suai fire, March 2020 2,827 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,359 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2016 1,579 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 350 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2016 3,485 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 156 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2016 21,629 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2019 3,003 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 ha Mae Suai fire, March 2020 4,496 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Bangkok boundary: geoBoundaries · OpenStreetMap, Wambacher · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
2,257 ha reached on 11 Apr1.6 %
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 2025Built-up area1.9 ha
Residents≈ 150
Inside the perimeter there were about 1.9 hectares of built-up land and about 150 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Apr | 37.3 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Apr | 37.1 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Apr | 37.5 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Apr | 38.5 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Apr | 38.4 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Apr | 37.6 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 17 Apr | 38.0 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Apr after | 38.7 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Apr after | 37.3 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Apr after | 37.5 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Apr after | 37.3 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 22 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Apr after | 37.3 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Apr after | 34.8 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Apr after | 36.5 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Apr after | 34.4 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Apr after | 36.9 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 33 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 36.8, a minimum humidity of 26% and 21 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 65.
FWI at the start
36.8
Minimum humidity
26 %
Days without rain
21
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Mae Suai fire, 11 April 2023
2,246 ha
7 days
FWI 36.8
Min. humidity 26 %
Monghsat fire, March 2017
2,998 ha
3 days
FWI 37.1
Min. humidity 25 %
87 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 28 Mar.
Chai Prakan fire, March 2016
1,226 ha
7 days
FWI 34.0
Min. humidity 26 %
12 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Chiang Dao fire, March 2024
1,665 ha
8 days
FWI 37.2
Min. humidity 24 %
46 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 9.7 mm on 20 Mar.
Mueang Chiang Rai fire, April 2024
1,034 ha
10 days
FWI 37.1
Min. humidity 26 %
49 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.4 mm on 7 May.
Pai fire, March 2024
1,167 ha
3 days
FWI 36.3
Min. humidity 26 %
98 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.6 mm on 20 Mar.
What happened to them
- 9 days
- median duration
- 1,607 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.7 mm
- rain at the end (median; 41 of 65 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (2,246 ha against a median of 1,607 ha) and lasted 7 days, against 9 days.
In 24 of 65, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
31km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 17 Apr, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 41 of 65, with a median of 2.7 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 4 Apr 2023
After · 24 Apr 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 12 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 98 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 63: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak98 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM10140 µg/m³
Optical depth1.48
WHO 15
9 Apr12 Apr15 Apr18 Apr
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
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 · 79Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,344 haMae Suai แม่สรวย25 March 2026 · 30 days · 10 km away
- 21,629 haMae Suai แม่สรวย1 April 2016 · 27 days · 15 km away
- 12,037 haPhrao พร้าว23 March 2026 · 33 days · 17 km away
- 12,562 haPhan พานMarch 2026 · 29 days · 28 km away
- 11,393 haWiang Pa Pao เวียงป่าเป้า23 March 2026 · 33 days · 30 km away
- 22,917 haMae Lao แม่ลาวMarch 2023 · 34 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mae Suai fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 April 2023 to 17 April 2023 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 April 2023 to 16 April 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,246 hectares (22.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mae Suai (2,257 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 65. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 1,607 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 24 of 65, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.
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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 16 April 2023 → 17 April 2023.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 11 April 2023 to 16 April 2023. 79 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.