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Pak Chom fire, April 2023 Thailand

Out · last measured on 7 Apr 2023

The fire started on 4 April 2023 in Pak Chom, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 140th largest in Loei Province since 2016 (of 192 with a page). Number 360 in Thailand in 2023, of 500.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
1,225ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
4 Apr 2023 – 7 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
0
districts
Started on
4 Apr
2023
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

38°high
36km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 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: 327 ha in 2016, 433 ha in 2017, 43 ha in 2018, 170 ha in 2019, 420 ha in 2020, 11 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 890 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)
4 Apr 38.1 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Apr 38.3 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Apr 38.0 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Apr 37.0 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Apr after 34.9 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Apr after 34.9 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
10 Apr after 38.2 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Apr after 39.4 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Apr after 39.9 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Apr after 38.6 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Apr after 40.2 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Apr after 40.1 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Apr after 35.9 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.8 mm High 27
17 Apr after 38.8 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Mar 2023
After · 14 Apr 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 7 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 454 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 223: 15 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak454 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10648 µg/m³
Optical depth3.07
2345678910
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pak Chom fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 April 2023 and 7 April 2023: 4 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 1,225 hectares (12.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 36 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.