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TH · Thailand · –

Wang Nam Khiao fire, 24 January 2019 วังน้ำเขียว · Pak Thong Chai, Wang Nam Khiao, Khon Buri

Out · last detection 28 Jan 2019, 18:24 UTC

The fire started on 24 January 2019 in Wang Nam Khiao, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,553 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 176 in Thailand in 2019, of 385.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.2 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
1,553ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
24 Jan 2019 – 28 Jan 2019
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
24 Jan
2019
Heat detections
50
in a single hotspot: 11 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
30MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jan28 Jan
28 Jan 2019

How it evolved, day by day

24 Jan 2019 · 9 MW · 3 25 Jan 2019 · 44 MW · 19 26 Jan 2019 · 32 MW · 8 27 Jan 2019 · 35 MW · 14 28 Jan 2019 · 31 MW · 6
24 Jan 25 Jan 26 Jan 27 Jan 28 Jan

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
38km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 370 ha in 2016, 281 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 509 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1% of the area of London (16 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Pak Thong Chai ปักธงชัย
    904 ha reached on 25 Jan
    0.9 %
  2. Wang Nam Khiao วังน้ำเขียว where it started
    459 ha reached on 24 Jan
    0.4 %
  3. Khon Buri ครบุรี
    199 ha reached on 25 Jan
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area2.0 ha
Residents≈ 100

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.0 hectares of built-up land and about 100 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
17 Jan 29.2 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
18 Jan 27.9 °C 54 % 36 km/h 1.9 mm Low 6
19 Jan 27.3 °C 62 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
20 Jan 30.6 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
21 Jan 30.4 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
22 Jan 28.6 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Jan 28.8 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
24 Jan 29.3 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
25 Jan 30.4 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
26 Jan 27.9 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Jan 27.9 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
28 Jan 28.0 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Jan after 29.6 °C 49 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
30 Jan after 30.7 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
31 Jan after 31.1 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
1 Feb after 30.2 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Feb after 31.1 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
3 Feb after 33.2 °C 42 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
4 Feb after 33.8 °C 43 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
5 Feb after 34.4 °C 43 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
6 Feb after 32.9 °C 56 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 18
7 Feb after 33.2 °C 55 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 15.6, a minimum humidity of 41% and 12 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 36.

FWI at the start 15.6
Minimum humidity 41 %
Days without rain 12
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Nong Bua Daeng fire, February 2024
1,485 ha 3 days FWI 15.7 Min. humidity 42 % 178 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 24 Feb.

What happened to them

7 days
median duration
1,522 ha
median area
97 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 24 of 36 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,553 ha against a median of 1,522 ha) and lasted 5 days, against 7 days.

In 12 of 36, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
38km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 28 Jan, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 24 of 36, with a median of 2.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jan 2019
After · 4 Feb 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 · 50Every 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 Wang Nam Khiao fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2019 and 28 January 2019: 5 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 1,553 hectares (15.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pak Thong Chai (904 ha, 0.9 %); Wang Nam Khiao (459 ha, 0.4 %); Khon Buri (199 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 36. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 1,522 ha; 97 % went past 1,000 ha. In 12 of 36, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 50 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.