Nam Som fire, March 2016 Nam Som, Pak Chom
The fire started on 19 March 2016 in Nam Som, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,352 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Udon Thani Province since 2016 (of 22 with a page). Number 307 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.
The power measured by the satellite is low (29.3 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
- 1,352ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 19 Mar 2016 – 23 Mar 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 19 Mar
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 59
- in a single hotspot: 29 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 433MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.6 mm on 1 Apr.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Nam Som where it started766 ha reached on 19 Mar1.3 %
-
593 ha reached on 20 Mar0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Mar | 38.0 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Mar | 37.9 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Mar | 38.1 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Mar | 38.3 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Mar | 38.2 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Mar after | 36.8 °C | 33 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Mar after | 27.4 °C | 47 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Mar after | 29.6 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 27 Mar after | 28.7 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 28 Mar after | 30.0 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Mar after | 32.0 °C | 41 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Mar after | 34.1 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 31 Mar after | 33.6 °C | 46 % | 28 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Apr after | 31.7 °C | 57 % | 26 km/h | 5.6 mm | Very low 3 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 59Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,354 haNa Yung16 March 2016 · 8 days · 14 km away
- 5,928 haChiang Khan22 March 2026 · 18 days · 21 km away
- 4,939 haNa Yung22 March 2023 · 8 days · 26 km away
- 37,269 haPak Chom8 April 2026 · 15 days · 28 km away
- 5,636 haPak Chom27 March 2026 · 13 days · 35 km away
- 3,824 haNa Yung8 March 2019 · 10 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nam Som fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 March 2016 and 23 March 2016: 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 1,352 hectares (13.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nam Som (766 ha, 1.3 %); Pak Chom (593 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.
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
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.