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Moonlapamok fire, February 2021 Moonlapamok

Out · last detection 23 Mar 2021, 05:31 UTC

The fire started on 4 February 2021 in Moonlapamok, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 48 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,194 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 3th largest in Champasak since 2016 (of 22 with a page). Number 15 in Laos in 2021, of 88.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sukhuma · 2026Chhaeb · 2026Moonlapamok · 2021Thala Barivat · 2024

Burnt area
4,194ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
48days
4 Feb 2021 – 23 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
4 Feb
2021
Heat detections
653
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
115MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Feb23 Mar
23 Mar 2021

How it evolved, day by day

4 Feb 2021 · 16 MW · 9 5 Feb 2021 · 7 MW · 4 6 Feb 2021 · 63 MW · 12 8 Feb 2021 · 6 MW · 2 11 Feb 2021 · 19 MW · 4 12 Feb 2021 · 4 MW · 6 13 Feb 2021 · 162 MW · 13 14 Feb 2021 · 1,111 MW · 48 15 Feb 2021 · 71 MW · 27 16 Feb 2021 · 189 MW · 14 17 Feb 2021 · 184 MW · 38 18 Feb 2021 · 78 MW · 18 19 Feb 2021 · 87 MW · 17 20 Feb 2021 · 303 MW · 38 21 Feb 2021 · 42 MW · 13 22 Feb 2021 · 74 MW · 13 23 Feb 2021 · 208 MW · 23 24 Feb 2021 · 72 MW · 19 25 Feb 2021 · 115 MW · 24 26 Feb 2021 · 168 MW · 33 27 Feb 2021 · 74 MW · 17 28 Feb 2021 · 176 MW · 36 1 Mar 2021 · 8 MW · 3 2 Mar 2021 · 82 MW · 13 3 Mar 2021 · 84 MW · 18 4 Mar 2021 · 31 MW · 6 5 Mar 2021 · 83 MW · 11 6 Mar 2021 · 112 MW · 20 7 Mar 2021 · 112 MW · 26 8 Mar 2021 · 61 MW · 21 9 Mar 2021 · 96 MW · 21 10 Mar 2021 · 129 MW · 23 11 Mar 2021 · 75 MW · 14 12 Mar 2021 · 375 MW · 28 14 Mar 2021 · 28 MW · 3 15 Mar 2021 · 54 MW · 10 16 Mar 2021 · 3 MW · 2 17 Mar 2021 · 8 MW · 1 20 Mar 2021 · 3 MW · 2 23 Mar 2021 · 20 MW · 3
4 Feb 13 Feb 14 Feb 19 Feb 25 Feb 3 Mar 9 Mar 16 Mar

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
34km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 2 Apr.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,492 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.6% of the area of London (42 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. Moonlapamok where it started
    4,218 ha reached on 4 Feb
    1.8 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
4 Feb 32.1 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Feb 32.7 °C 41 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Feb 32.5 °C 42 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Feb 33.3 °C 43 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Feb 33.7 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 20
9 Feb 32.2 °C 50 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Feb 29.6 °C 57 % 28 km/h 2.2 mm Low 7
11 Feb 31.3 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
12 Feb 32.1 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Feb 32.2 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
14 Feb 32.5 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Feb 32.7 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Feb 32.9 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Feb 32.7 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Feb 32.4 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Feb 32.2 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Feb 32.0 °C 36 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Feb 32.7 °C 37 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Feb 33.5 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Feb 34.0 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Feb 33.4 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Feb 34.2 °C 43 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Feb 34.5 °C 46 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Feb 35.3 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Feb 34.3 °C 46 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Mar 35.1 °C 46 % 21 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
2 Mar 36.2 °C 46 % 23 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 14
3 Mar 36.4 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Mar 36.2 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
5 Mar 36.3 °C 42 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Mar 36.0 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
7 Mar 36.2 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Mar 33.1 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Mar 35.8 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
10 Mar 34.9 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Mar 36.5 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Mar 35.8 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Mar 34.9 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Mar 34.6 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Mar 35.4 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Mar 34.3 °C 46 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Mar 33.7 °C 51 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Mar 35.9 °C 42 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Mar 35.0 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Mar 36.9 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Mar 35.9 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
22 Mar 35.5 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
23 Mar 36.0 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Mar after 35.9 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Mar after 36.6 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Mar after 37.1 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Mar after 36.4 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Mar after 37.0 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Mar after 36.1 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Mar after 36.5 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Mar after 37.9 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Apr after 36.6 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Apr after 37.5 °C 41 % 24 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 21

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jan 2021
After · 30 Mar 2021

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 · 653Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Moonlapamok fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 February 2021 to 23 March 2021 (48 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 February 2021 to 17 March 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,194 hectares (41.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Moonlapamok (4,218 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Laos (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.

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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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 February 2021 to 17 March 2021. 653 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 2020, 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.