Nga fire, 20 March 2020 Nga
The fire started on 20 March 2020 in Nga, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,831 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 45th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 34 in Laos in 2020, of 169.
- Burnt area
- 5,831ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 20 Mar 2020 – 6 Apr 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 157
- in a single hotspot: 340 MW
- Danger at start
- 4
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.2GW
- 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 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.7 mm on 7 Apr.
This area had burned before
31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 239 ha in 2017, 1,565 ha in 2018.
What happened to each town
-
Nga where it started5,865 ha reached on 20 Mar3.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Mar | 29.2 °C | 48 % | 45 km/h | 3.8 mm | Very low 4 |
| 21 Mar | 30.0 °C | 38 % | 50 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 22 Mar | 29.9 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 10 |
| 23 Mar | 27.4 °C | 49 % | 42 km/h | 1.9 mm | Low 6 |
| 24 Mar | 27.6 °C | 53 % | 40 km/h | 10.6 mm | Very low 1 |
| 25 Mar | 28.7 °C | 46 % | 51 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very low 5 |
| 26 Mar | 30.5 °C | 34 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 27 Mar | 32.0 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 28 Mar | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 29 Mar | 34.0 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Mar | 34.2 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 31 Mar | 34.1 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 1 Apr | 33.9 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Apr | 32.0 °C | 35 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Apr | 33.1 °C | 32 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 4 Apr | 33.8 °C | 29 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Apr | 28.0 °C | 59 % | 40 km/h | 12.3 mm | Very low 1 |
| 6 Apr | 27.6 °C | 61 % | 39 km/h | 11.7 mm | Very low 0 |
| 7 Apr after | 27.5 °C | 60 % | 34 km/h | 4.7 mm | Very low 0 |
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 · 157Every 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 Nga fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 March 2020 to 6 April 2020 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 March 2020 to 2 April 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,831 hectares (58.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nga (5,865 ha, 3.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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
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.