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Omkoi fire, 2 April 2020 Omkoi

Out · last detection 8 Apr 2020, 18:48 UTC

The fire started on 2 April 2020 in Omkoi, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,383 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 268th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 406 in Thailand in 2020, of 666.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,383ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
2 Apr 2020 – 8 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
2 Apr
2020
Heat detections
57
in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
219MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Apr8 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2345678

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
48km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

21% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 295 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Omkoi where it started
    1,392 ha reached on 27 Mar
    0.5 %

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)
27 Mar 29.5 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Mar 30.3 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Mar 30.2 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Mar 30.9 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Mar 31.9 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Apr 31.5 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Apr 31.2 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Apr 31.7 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Apr 32.4 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Apr 32.2 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Apr 29.6 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
7 Apr 30.1 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Apr 31.0 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Apr after 32.0 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Apr after 31.2 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Apr after 32.1 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Apr after 32.3 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Apr after 32.0 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Apr after 30.6 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Apr after 30.4 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
16 Apr after 30.9 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
17 Apr after 30.8 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Apr after 29.7 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Mar 2020
After · 15 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 · 57Every 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 2 April 2020 and 8 April 2020: 7 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 1,383 hectares (13.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Omkoi (1,392 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 48 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 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.