Namor fire, March 2023 Namor, Xay
The fire started on 26 March 2023 in Namor, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,366 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 23th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 30 in Laos in 2023, of 214.
- Burnt area
- 8,366ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 34days
- 26 Mar 2023 – 28 Apr 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 505
- in a single hotspot: 601 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 22.0GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 29 Apr.
This area had burned before
72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 20 ha in 2016, 912 ha in 2017, 1,719 ha in 2018, 3,889 ha in 2019, 4,111 ha in 2021, 4,255 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,000 ha that had burned before.
- 4,111 ha Namor fire, April 2021 6,631 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,004 ha Namor fire, April 2022 2,252 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,924 ha Namor fire, April 2022 3,197 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,652 ha Namor fire, April 2019 2,205 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 24 ha Xay fire, April 2017 2,113 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Namor where it started5,825 ha reached on 26 Mar3.3 %
-
2,586 ha reached on 26 Mar1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Mar | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Mar | 31.0 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Mar | 30.8 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Mar | 28.8 °C | 45 % | 36 km/h | 9.3 mm | Very low 3 |
| 30 Mar | 30.0 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 31 Mar | 31.2 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Apr | 32.2 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Apr | 31.2 °C | 32 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Apr | 30.8 °C | 32 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 4 Apr | 31.8 °C | 28 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Apr | 32.7 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Apr | 32.7 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Apr | 32.2 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Apr | 30.7 °C | 43 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 9 Apr | 31.8 °C | 41 % | 36 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Apr | 34.5 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Apr | 34.9 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Apr | 34.7 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Apr | 34.4 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Apr | 35.3 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Apr | 35.0 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Apr | 33.6 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Apr | 34.2 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Apr | 36.3 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Apr | 36.6 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Apr | 36.0 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Apr | 36.0 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Apr | 34.2 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 31 |
| 23 Apr | 35.1 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Apr | 32.8 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Apr | 33.9 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 35 |
| 26 Apr | 29.0 °C | 56 % | 39 km/h | 5.8 mm | Very low 4 |
| 27 Apr | 31.1 °C | 46 % | 41 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 28 Apr | 33.4 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Apr after | 33.5 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 19 |
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 · 505Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Namor fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 March 2023 to 28 April 2023 (34 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 April 2023 to 23 April 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,366 hectares (83.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Namor (5,825 ha, 3.3 %); Xay (2,586 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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
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.