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TH · Thailand · –

Mancha Khiri fire, February 2024 มัญจาคีรี · Mancha Khiri, Ban Thaen

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2024, 06:36 UTC

The fire started on 5 February 2024 in Mancha Khiri, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,744 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Khon Kaen Province since 2016 (of 13 with a page). Number 103 in Thailand in 2024, of 277.

Burnt area
1,744ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
5 Feb 2024 – 14 Feb 2024
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
5 Feb
2024
Heat detections
40
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
40MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Feb14 Feb
14 Feb 2024

How it evolved, day by day

5 Feb 2024 · 90 MW · 19 6 Feb 2024 · 153 MW · 11 7 Feb 2024 · 26 MW · 5 10 Feb 2024 · 1 MW · 2 11 Feb 2024 · 2 MW · 1 13 Feb 2024 · 1 MW · 1 14 Feb 2024 · 6 MW · 1
6 Feb 11 Feb 14 Feb

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
39km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 276 ha in 2016, 312 ha in 2017, 83 ha in 2018, 250 ha in 2019, 426 ha in 2021, 251 ha in 2022, 459 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,082 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.1% of the area of London (17 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. Mancha Khiri มัญจาคีรี where it started
    1,413 ha reached on 5 Feb
    2.1 %
  2. Ban Thaen บ้านแท่น
    342 ha reached on 5 Feb
    1.1 %

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 2025
Built-up area0.17 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.17 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
5 Feb 36.7 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Feb 36.7 °C 27 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Feb 36.7 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Feb 36.4 °C 26 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Feb 33.5 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Feb 27.0 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Feb 28.5 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
12 Feb 30.1 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Feb 32.3 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Feb 34.3 °C 31 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Feb after 35.5 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Feb after 33.4 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Feb after 34.5 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Feb after 34.6 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
19 Feb after 36.5 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Feb after 36.7 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Feb after 36.3 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Feb after 36.7 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Feb after 37.4 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Feb after 35.8 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 30

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 26.5, a minimum humidity of 25% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.

FWI at the start 26.5
Minimum humidity 25 %
Days without rain 6
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Wang Saphung fire, March 2023
1,835 ha 9 days FWI 31.4 Min. humidity 25 % 155 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 9 Apr.

What happened to them

5 days
median duration
1,294 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 15 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,744 ha against a median of 1,294 ha) and lasted 10 days, against 5 days.

In 2 of 15, 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 2.3 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
39km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 15, with a median of 2.3 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jan 2024
After · 21 Feb 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 3 February 2024 the air beside the fire reached 43 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak43 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1062 µg/m³
Optical depth0.99
3 Feb5 Feb7 Feb9 Feb11 Feb
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 · 40Every 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 Mancha Khiri fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 February 2024 to 14 February 2024 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 February 2024 to 8 February 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,744 hectares (17.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mancha Khiri (1,413 ha, 2.1 %); Ban Thaen (342 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.
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: 15. Their median duration was 5 days and their median area 1,294 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 2 of 15, 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 2.3 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.
  1. Last day with fire: 8 February 2024 → 14 February 2024.

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
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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 February 2024 to 8 February 2024. 40 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.

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.