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Parklai fire, 8 April 2019 Parklai

Out · last detection 25 Apr 2019, 07:01 UTC

The fire started on 8 April 2019 in Parklai, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,360 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 22th largest in Xaignabouli since 2016 (of 122 with a page). Number 12 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
6,360ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
8 Apr 2019 – 24 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
8 Apr
2019
Heat detections
243
in a single hotspot: 117 MW
Danger at start
11
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Apr24 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213141516172021222425

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
34km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 27 Apr.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13 ha in 2016, 182 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Parklai where it started
    6,402 ha reached on 8 Apr
    2.9 %

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)
8 Apr 36.3 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
9 Apr 36.2 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
10 Apr 35.5 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 Apr 37.1 °C 31 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Apr 36.6 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Apr 36.8 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
14 Apr 37.2 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Apr 35.7 °C 50 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 19
16 Apr 36.7 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Apr 36.8 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 15
18 Apr 38.0 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Apr 38.4 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Apr 38.9 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Apr 38.2 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Apr 36.8 °C 41 % 29 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 16
23 Apr 35.5 °C 40 % 29 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 12
24 Apr 37.0 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
25 Apr after 36.4 °C 42 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
26 Apr after 37.1 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm High 22
27 Apr after 37.4 °C 34 % 31 km/h 2.4 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Apr 2019
After · 1 May 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 · 243Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Parklai fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 April 2019 to 24 April 2019 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 April 2019 to 17 April 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,360 hectares (63.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Parklai (6,402 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.

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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.