Pakbeng fire, 25 March 2024 Pakbeng, Hoon
The fire started on 25 March 2024 in Pakbeng, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 53th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 12 in Laos in 2024, of 109.
- Burnt area
- 5,225ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 25 Mar 2024 – 16 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 201
- in a single hotspot: 128 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,714 ha in 2016, 1,457 ha in 2017, 1,640 ha in 2018, 3,048 ha in 2019, 1,836 ha in 2020, 1,000 ha in 2021, 2,409 ha in 2022, 3,946 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,173 ha that had burned before.
- 3,764 ha Hoon fire, March 2023 9,870 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,650 ha Pakbeng fire, March 2019 6,914 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,294 ha Pakbeng fire, April 2022 3,454 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,278 ha Pakbeng fire, April 2018 2,730 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 716 ha Pakbeng fire, March 2020 3,931 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 506 ha Hoon fire, March 2020 9,258 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 374 ha Hoon fire, March 2021 2,956 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 82 ha Pakbeng fire, March 2023 4,736 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pakbeng where it started4,802 ha reached on 25 Mar3.8 %
-
448 ha reached on 28 Mar0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar | 37.0 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Mar | 36.9 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Mar | 36.3 °C | 37 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Mar | 35.4 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 29 Mar | 35.1 °C | 32 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Mar | 37.0 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Mar | 37.5 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Apr | 38.1 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Apr | 38.1 °C | 26 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 3 Apr | 38.6 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Apr | 39.4 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Apr | 39.0 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Apr | 39.5 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Apr | 39.3 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Apr | 39.0 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Apr | 39.1 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Apr | 33.2 °C | 52 % | 27 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 11 Apr | 37.9 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 12 Apr | 37.0 °C | 42 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Apr | 38.9 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Apr | 38.2 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Apr | 38.2 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Apr | 36.7 °C | 40 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Apr after | 37.2 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Apr after | 35.7 °C | 40 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Apr after | 37.1 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Apr after | 36.4 °C | 41 % | 47 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Apr after | 37.7 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Apr after | 39.6 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Apr after | 39.2 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 24 Apr after | 38.1 °C | 39 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Apr after | 36.9 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Apr after | 36.6 °C | 38 % | 43 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 8 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 124 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 72: 4.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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)
Detections table · 201Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,870 haHoon10 March 2023 · 26 days · 4 km away
- 12,233 haPha Oudom28 March 2016 · 22 days · 27 km away
- 11,424 haPha Oudom21 March 2019 · 13 days · 28 km away
- 10,361 haPha Oudom21 March 2020 · 23 days · 34 km away
- 24,544 haKhopMarch 2023 · 31 days · 38 km away
- 12,680 haXienghoneMarch 2019 · 33 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pakbeng fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 March 2024 to 16 April 2024 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 March 2024 to 9 April 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,225 hectares (52.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pakbeng (4,802 ha, 3.8 %); Hoon (448 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.
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
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
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.