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Pai fire, 19 March 2019 Thailand

Out · last detection 26 Mar 2019, 18:53 UTC

The fire started on 19 March 2019 in Pai, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,356 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 53th largest in Mae Hong Son Province since 2016 (of 668 with a page). Number 23 in Thailand in 2019, of 503.

Burnt area
5,356ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
19 Mar 2019 – 26 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
0
districts
Started on
19 Mar
2019
Heat detections
48
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
134MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Mar26 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
50km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 763 ha in 2016, 3,261 ha in 2017, 1,254 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,487 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)
19 Mar 32.0 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Mar 32.0 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Mar 32.6 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Mar 32.0 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Mar 33.0 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Mar 33.3 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Mar 34.0 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Mar 33.7 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Mar after 32.3 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Mar after 31.5 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Mar after 33.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Mar after 32.7 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Mar after 33.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Apr after 33.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Apr after 33.8 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Apr after 32.8 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 39
4 Apr after 34.0 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Apr after 33.8 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Mar 2019
After · 2 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 · 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 19 March 2019 and 26 March 2019: 8 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 5,356 hectares (53.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.