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Mae Wang fire, 14 March 2017 Mae Wang

Out · last detection 19 Mar 2017, 06:42 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2017 in Mae Wang, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,512 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 104th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 43 in Thailand in 2017, of 240.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.9 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
2,512ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Mar 2017 – 19 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Mar
2017
Heat detections
77
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
222MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar19 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
36km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 27 Mar.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 887 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mae Wang where it started
    2,525 ha reached on 8 Mar
    3.7 %

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)
8 Mar 32.3 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Mar 33.6 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Mar 33.1 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Mar 33.8 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Mar 35.1 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Mar 34.6 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Mar 34.0 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Mar 35.2 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Mar 35.8 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Mar 34.9 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Mar 35.1 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Mar 35.3 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Mar after 35.1 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Mar after 34.0 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Mar after 33.4 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Mar after 34.3 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Mar after 35.8 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Mar after 36.3 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Mar after 35.9 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Mar after 28.6 °C 64 % 35 km/h 2.4 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Mar 2017
After · 26 Mar 2017

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 · 77Every 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 Wang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 March 2017 and 19 March 2017: 6 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 2,512 hectares (25.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mae Wang (2,525 ha, 3.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 36 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.

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.