Nga fire, 25 March 2024 Nga, Nambak
The fire started on 25 March 2024 in Nga, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,039 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 85th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 26 in Laos in 2024, of 109.
- Burnt area
- 4,039ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 25 Mar 2024 – 7 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 159
- in a single hotspot: 364 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.9GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.2 mm on 9 Apr.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 545 ha in 2016, 861 ha in 2017, 1,415 ha in 2018, 546 ha in 2019, 1,423 ha in 2020, 568 ha in 2021, 1,736 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,361 ha that had burned before.
- 1,423 ha Nga fire, March 2020 9,420 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,415 ha Nga fire, April 2018 4,763 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,220 ha Nga fire, March 2023 3,236 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 861 ha Nga fire, April 2017 4,984 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Nga where it started3,159 ha reached on 25 Mar1.6 %
-
904 ha reached on 26 Mar0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar | 31.4 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 26 Mar | 30.6 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Mar | 29.2 °C | 45 % | 45 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 28 Mar | 29.3 °C | 43 % | 35 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 29 Mar | 29.0 °C | 42 % | 41 km/h | 3.7 mm | Very low 3 |
| 30 Mar | 30.5 °C | 34 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 31 Mar | 31.9 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Apr | 32.9 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Apr | 32.6 °C | 26 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Apr | 33.4 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Apr | 33.8 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 5 Apr | 33.1 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 6 Apr | 33.8 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Apr | 33.7 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Apr after | 33.2 °C | 42 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 9 Apr after | 31.3 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 8.2 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 9 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 150 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 102: 6.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 159Every 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 25 March 2024 to 7 April 2024 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 March 2024 to 6 April 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,039 hectares (40.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nga (3,159 ha, 1.6 %); Nambak (904 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 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.