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Ngao fire, 16 March 2016 Ngao

Out · last detection 24 Mar 2016, 05:53 UTC

The fire started on 16 March 2016 in Ngao, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,311 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 20th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 202 with a page). Number 69 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area
3,311ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
16 Mar 2016 – 24 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Mar
2016
Heat detections
122
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
645MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Mar24 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
45km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Ngao where it started
    3,330 ha reached on 15 Mar
    2.2 %

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)
8 Mar 37.3 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Mar 37.5 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Mar 37.1 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Mar 36.7 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Mar 35.3 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Mar 37.2 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Mar 37.7 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Mar 38.3 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Mar 37.9 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Mar 38.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Mar 38.0 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Mar 37.5 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Mar 37.7 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Mar 38.3 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Mar 37.9 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Mar 37.9 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Mar 38.1 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Mar after 33.9 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Mar after 34.3 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Mar after 32.8 °C 51 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Mar after 34.7 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
29 Mar after 33.2 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
30 Mar after 37.1 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Mar after 37.3 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Apr after 35.7 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Apr after 36.2 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
3 Apr after 37.6 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 9 Mar 2016
After · 31 Mar 2016

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 · 122Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ngao fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 March 2016 and 24 March 2016: 9 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 3,311 hectares (33.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ngao (3,330 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 199 · 191.

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.