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Ngoi fire, April 2019 Ngoi

Out · last detection 21 Apr 2019, 06:36 UTC

The fire started on 9 April 2019 in Ngoi, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,886 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 134th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 293 with a page). Number 56 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
2,886ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
9 Apr 2019 – 21 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Apr
2019
Heat detections
110
in a single hotspot: 783 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Apr21 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

910111214151617182021

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
46km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 28 Apr.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 76 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Ngoi where it started
    2,898 ha reached on 9 Apr
    1.5 %

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)
9 Apr 32.7 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Apr 32.5 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
11 Apr 32.8 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
12 Apr 33.3 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Apr 34.2 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Apr 33.8 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Apr 34.6 °C 39 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Apr 35.4 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Apr 34.9 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.7 mm High 25
18 Apr 35.8 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Apr 36.6 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Apr 36.4 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Apr 35.8 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
22 Apr after 34.5 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.9 mm High 23
23 Apr after 34.0 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 21
24 Apr after 33.9 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
25 Apr after 33.4 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
26 Apr after 35.2 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
27 Apr after 31.7 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Apr after 31.7 °C 41 % 47 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Apr 2019
After · 28 Apr 2019

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 · 110Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ngoi fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 April 2019 to 21 April 2019 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 April 2019 to 14 April 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,886 hectares (28.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ngoi (2,898 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.

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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.