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Pai fire, 14 February 2017 Pai

Out · last detection 20 Feb 2017, 06:49 UTC

The fire started on 14 February 2017 in Pai, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,341 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 214th largest in Mae Hong Son Province since 2016 (of 668 with a page). Number 50 in Thailand in 2017, of 240.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.6 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
2,341ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Feb 2017 – 20 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Feb
2017
Heat detections
68
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
239MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Feb 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Feb20 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
43km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,479 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,291 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pai where it started
    2,352 ha reached on 14 Feb
    1.0 %

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)
14 Feb 28.6 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
15 Feb 26.3 °C 47 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
16 Feb 29.4 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Feb 30.3 °C 31 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Feb 30.0 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
19 Feb 29.9 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Feb 29.4 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Feb after 30.7 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Feb after 32.0 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Feb after 32.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Feb after 32.9 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Feb after 32.8 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Feb after 32.8 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Feb after 33.1 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Feb after 33.4 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Mar after 33.2 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Mar after 33.0 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Feb 2017
After · 27 Feb 2017

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 · 68Every 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 Pai fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 February 2017 and 20 February 2017: 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 2,341 hectares (23.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pai (2,352 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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.