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Mae Wang fire, 22 March 2017 Mae Wang

Out · last detection 26 Mar 2017, 18:41 UTC

The fire started on 22 March 2017 in Mae Wang, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,185 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 342th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 176 in Thailand in 2017, of 240.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.0 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
1,185ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
22 Mar 2017 – 26 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Mar
2017
Heat detections
38
in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
107MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Mar26 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526

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
36km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 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

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mae Wang where it started
    1,192 ha reached on 15 Mar
    1.8 %

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)
13 Mar 35.9 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Mar 35.2 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Mar 36.5 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Mar 37.0 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Mar 36.2 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Mar 36.3 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Mar 36.6 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Mar 36.4 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Mar 35.2 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Mar 34.6 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Mar 35.6 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Mar 37.0 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Mar 37.6 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Mar 37.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Mar after 29.9 °C 65 % 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 · 15 Mar 2017
After · 2 Apr 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 · 38Every 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 22 March 2017 and 26 March 2017: 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 1,185 hectares (11.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mae Wang (1,192 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.