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Pai fire, 6 March 2019 Thailand

Out · last detection 22 Mar 2019, 18:28 UTC

The fire started on 6 March 2019 in Pai, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,758 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 35th largest in Mae Hong Son Province since 2016 (of 668 with a page). Number 14 in Thailand in 2019, of 503.

Burnt area
7,758ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
6 Mar 2019 – 21 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
0
districts
Started on
6 Mar
2019
Heat detections
121
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
436MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

111314151619202122

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
51km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,494 ha in 2016, 3,882 ha in 2017, 2,594 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,675 ha that had burned before.

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)
6 Mar 31.3 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
7 Mar 29.1 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Mar 30.8 °C 38 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Mar 32.3 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Mar 32.5 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Mar 33.6 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Mar 33.4 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Mar 34.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Mar 35.1 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Mar 35.0 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Mar 34.9 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Mar 35.7 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Mar 36.1 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Mar 34.9 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Mar 34.7 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Mar 35.1 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Mar after 34.9 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Mar after 35.8 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Mar after 36.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Mar after 36.9 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Mar after 36.8 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Mar after 35.1 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Mar after 34.2 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Mar after 36.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Mar after 35.5 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Mar after 35.8 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Feb 2019
After · 28 Mar 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 · 0Every 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 6 March 2019 and 21 March 2019: 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 7,758 hectares (77.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.