Nga fire, 24 March 2024 Nga, Park Ou
The fire started on 24 March 2024 in Nga, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,619 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 29th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 5 in Laos in 2024, of 109.
- Burnt area
- 7,619ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 24 Mar 2024 – 9 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 387
- in a single hotspot: 253 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 10.1GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 11 Apr.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,104 ha in 2016, 3,058 ha in 2017, 4,505 ha in 2018, 4,905 ha in 2019, 4,901 ha in 2020, 624 ha in 2021, 4,390 ha in 2022, 3,424 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,372 ha that had burned before.
- 4,505 ha Nga fire, April 2018 40,796 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,819 ha Park Ou fire, March 2019 5,157 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,701 ha Park Ou fire, March 2016 4,628 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,675 ha Nga fire, March 2023 6,374 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,174 ha Park Ou fire, April 2022 5,126 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,541 ha Nga fire, April 2017 2,456 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,533 ha Park Ou fire, March 2020 10,480 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,136 ha Park Ou fire, April 2017 3,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Nga where it started4,550 ha reached on 24 Mar2.3 %
-
3,109 ha reached on 24 Mar3.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Mar | 34.0 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Mar | 34.6 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Mar | 34.0 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 27 Mar | 32.8 °C | 47 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Mar | 32.5 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 29 Mar | 33.2 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 30 Mar | 34.1 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 31 Mar | 35.6 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Apr | 36.6 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Apr | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 3 Apr | 36.8 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 4 Apr | 37.3 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Apr | 36.0 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Apr | 37.0 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Apr | 37.1 °C | 37 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Apr | 36.3 °C | 45 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Apr | 34.9 °C | 48 % | 32 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 9 |
| 10 Apr after | 32.0 °C | 57 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 11 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 47 % | 23 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
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 8 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 114 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 82: 5.4 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 · 387Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 40,796 haNga3 April 2018 · 12 days · 7 km away
- 14,236 haPark Ou26 March 2024 · 21 days · 26 km away
- 13,537 haNambak24 March 2026 · 21 days · 28 km away
- 35,409 haPark Ou9 March 2020 · 29 days · 30 km away
- 18,245 haNga22 March 2023 · 33 days · 33 km away
- 56,191 haPark Ou22 March 2026 · 32 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nga fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 March 2024 to 9 April 2024 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 March 2024 to 6 April 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,619 hectares (76.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nga (4,550 ha, 2.3 %); Park Ou (3,109 ha, 3.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.