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Omkoi fire, 16 March 2020 Omkoi, Sop Moei, Hot

Out · last detection 31 Mar 2020, 07:07 UTC

The fire started on 16 March 2020 in Omkoi, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,456 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 41th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 63 in Thailand in 2020, of 666.

Burnt area
4,456ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
16 Mar 2020 – 31 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
16 Mar
2020
Heat detections
216
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Mar 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Mar31 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

161718202122232425262728293031

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
51km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,430 ha in 2016, 458 ha in 2017, 775 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,320 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Omkoi where it started
    4,157 ha reached on 16 Mar
    1.4 %
  2. Sop Moei
    212 ha reached on 14 Mar
    0.2 %
  3. Hot
    120 ha reached on 24 Mar
    0.1 %

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)
12 Mar 35.7 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Mar 36.9 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Mar 36.9 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Mar 36.1 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.7 mm High 27
16 Mar 35.2 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Mar 35.6 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Mar 35.1 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Mar 35.0 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
20 Mar 34.1 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Mar 32.9 °C 33 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
22 Mar 33.4 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
23 Mar 34.5 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Mar 33.8 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
25 Mar 34.2 °C 29 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Mar 34.2 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Mar 34.8 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Mar 35.7 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Mar 35.6 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Mar 36.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Mar 37.3 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Apr after 36.8 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Apr after 36.4 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Apr after 37.0 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Apr after 37.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Apr after 37.4 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Apr after 35.0 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
7 Apr after 35.3 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Apr after 36.2 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Apr after 37.0 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Apr after 36.3 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Mar 2020
After · 7 Apr 2020

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 · 216Every 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 Omkoi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 March 2020 and 31 March 2020: 16 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 4,456 hectares (44.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Omkoi (4,157 ha, 1.4 %); Sop Moei (212 ha, 0.2 %); Hot (120 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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.