Burned area
satellite only8,338ha
Union of 2 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 10 Apr 2019 – 21 Apr 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
LA · Laos · –
Viengkham fire, 10 April 2019 Pak Xeng, Viengkham
Out · last detection 21 Apr 2019, 06:36 UTC
The fire started on 10 April 2019 in Viengkham, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,338 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 15th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 257 with a page). Number 7 in Laos in 2019, of 126.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only12days
10 Apr 2019 to 21 Apr 2019: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 21 Apr 2019, 06:36 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only10 Apr 2019
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 10 Apr 2019
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only372
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 369 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 10 Apr 2019 – 21 Apr 2019
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only5,376MW
Total radiative power on 12 April 2019; hotspots that day: 51.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 12 Apr 2019
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model17.9FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 10 Apr 2019, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.5°C · 26% RH
High of 36.5 °C and minimum humidity of 26% on 19 April 2019; gusts of 46 km/h on 18 April 2019.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 10 Apr 2019 – 21 Apr 2019
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 1,900people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 4.6 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
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.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 8,338 ha
- Dates
- 10 Apr 2019 – 21 Apr 2019
- Name
- Viengkham
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/viengkham-luang-prabang-2019-04?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire viengkham-luang-prabang-2019-04.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-04-10 | 9 | 90 | 32.5 | 16.9 | 37 | 11.6 | 38.2 | 0 | 17.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-04-11 | 69 | 3,302 | 33 | 16.9 | 32 | 10.2 | 33.8 | 0 | 18.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-04-12 | 51 | 5,376 | 33.4 | 17.2 | 35 | 11.3 | 35.6 | 0 | 20.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-04-13 | 82 | 2,037 | 34.1 | 17.2 | 32 | 11 | 34.6 | 0 | 21 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-04-14 | 67 | 5,174 | 33.7 | 17.9 | 38 | 10.1 | 36 | 0 | 21.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-04-15 | 41 | 1,013 | 34.6 | 18.9 | 37 | 12.1 | 41 | 0 | 23.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-04-16 | 7 | 37 | 35.5 | 19.9 | 33 | 10.5 | 36.7 | 0.2 | 22.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-04-17 | 13 | 1,146 | 34.4 | 19.1 | 38 | 12.4 | 43.2 | 1.7 | 15 | moderado | 1 |
| 2019-04-18 | 8 | 268 | 35.6 | 20.1 | 29 | 14.6 | 46.4 | 0 | 27 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-04-19 | 5 | 46 | 36.5 | 19.8 | 26 | 14.5 | 45.7 | 0 | 30.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-04-20 | 12 | 325 | 36.5 | 21.1 | 24 | 12.7 | 40.7 | 0 | 31.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-04-21 | 8 | 66 | 35.8 | 19.3 | 33 | 11.8 | 38.9 | 0.9 | 24.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2019-04-22 | 0 | 0 | 34.4 | 19.2 | 35 | 10.5 | 35.6 | 0.9 | 21.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-04-23 | 0 | 0 | 34.6 | 20.9 | 36 | 7.1 | 34.9 | 0.4 | 22 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-04-24 | 0 | 0 | 34.2 | 19.9 | 39 | 9.8 | 35.6 | 0 | 24 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-04-25 | 0 | 0 | 34.7 | 20.8 | 36 | 8 | 30.6 | 0.6 | 22.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-04-26 | 0 | 0 | 35.5 | 20.2 | 31 | 10.5 | 29.9 | 0.3 | 27.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2019-04-27 | 0 | 0 | 32.4 | 20.2 | 37 | 8.2 | 42.1 | 1.3 | 16.8 | moderado | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 8,338ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 10 Apr 2019 – 21 Apr 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 10 Apr
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 372
- in a single hotspot: 369 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.6GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
10 Apr21 Apr
21 Apr 2019
How it evolved, day by day
12 Apr
16 Apr
19 Apr
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
46km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 27 Apr.
This area had burned before
41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 324 ha in 2016, 865 ha in 2017, 2,265 ha in 2018.
- 1,643 ha Pak Xeng fire, April 2018 3,823 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 865 ha Viengkham fire, April 2017 2,486 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 578 ha Pak Xeng fire, April 2018 2,032 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 271 ha Pak Xeng fire, April 2016 2,401 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
5,715 ha reached on 10 Apr3.4 %
-
Viengkham where it started2,661 ha reached on 10 Apr1.3 %
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 2020Built-up area4.6 ha
Residents≈ 1,900
Inside the perimeter there were about 4.6 hectares of built-up land and about 1,900 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Apr | 32.5 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 11 Apr | 33.0 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 12 Apr | 33.4 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 13 Apr | 34.1 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 Apr | 33.7 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 15 Apr | 34.6 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Apr | 35.5 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 23 |
| 17 Apr | 34.4 °C | 38 % | 43 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 18 Apr | 35.6 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Apr | 36.5 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Apr | 36.5 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Apr | 35.8 °C | 33 % | 39 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Apr after | 34.4 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 21 |
| 23 Apr after | 34.6 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 22 |
| 24 Apr after | 34.2 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 25 Apr after | 34.7 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Apr after | 35.5 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Apr after | 32.4 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 17.9, a minimum humidity of 37% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 41.
FWI at the start
17.9
Minimum humidity
37 %
Days without rain
3
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Viengkham fire, 10 April 2019
8,338 ha
12 days
FWI 17.9
Min. humidity 37 %
Phonxay fire, March 2023
3,282 ha
15 days
FWI 17.3
Min. humidity 37 %
48 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.6 mm on 30 Mar.
Phonxay fire, March 2020
2,837 ha
18 days
FWI 18.2
Min. humidity 37 %
53 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.1 mm on 9 Apr.
Viengkham fire, April 2016
4,404 ha
16 days
FWI 19.6
Min. humidity 37 %
13 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.6 mm on 21 Apr.
Hiem fire, February 2020
2,080 ha
6 days
FWI 16.2
Min. humidity 37 %
42 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Huameuang fire, April 2024
2,363 ha
4 days
FWI 17.4
Min. humidity 37 %
86 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.5 mm on 2 May.
What happened to them
- 9 days
- median duration
- 2,837 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 3.4 mm
- rain at the end (median; 38 of 41 had it)
It was 2.9 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 12 days, against 9 days.
Only 3 of its 41 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 41, 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 3.4 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
1.3 mmfirst rain
27 Apr6 days after it ended
46km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 21 Apr, and on 27 Apr 1.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 38 of 41, with a median of 3.4 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 3 Apr 2019
After · 28 Apr 2019
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 372Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,305 haPak Xeng3 April 2023 · 27 days · 9 km away
- 46,308 haPak XengMarch 2026 · 35 days · 22 km away
- 30,678 haPak XengMarch 2023 · 26 days · 32 km away
- 14,729 haNgoi1 April 2023 · 23 days · 32 km away
- 35,012 haPark Ou9 March 2020 · 31 days · 39 km away
- 14,195 haPark Ou26 March 2024 · 21 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Viengkham fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 April 2019 to 21 April 2019 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 April 2019 to 18 April 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,338 hectares (83.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pak Xeng (5,715 ha, 3.4 %); Viengkham (2,661 ha, 1.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Laos (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: 41. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 2,837 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 3 of its 41 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 41, 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 3.4 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.
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 April 2019 to 18 April 2019. 372 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.
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.