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Pathoomphone fire, March 2026 Pathoomphone

Out · last detection 22 Apr 2026, 05:40 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2026 in Pathoomphone, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,838 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Champasak since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 58 in Laos in 2026, of 287.

Burnt area
6,838ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
15 Mar 2026 – 22 Apr 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Mar
2026
Heat detections
249
in a single hotspot: 94 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Apr 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar22 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1516171920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516202122

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
32km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.4 mm on 25 Apr.

This area had burned before

28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 483 ha in 2016, 160 ha in 2018, 182 ha in 2019, 1,378 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,937 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pathoomphone where it started
    6,885 ha reached on 15 Mar
    2.8 %

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)
15 Mar 32.4 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
16 Mar 31.1 °C 51 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
17 Mar 32.2 °C 48 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
18 Mar 33.3 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
19 Mar 33.1 °C 52 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
20 Mar 31.4 °C 58 % 23 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 3
21 Mar 34.0 °C 51 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
22 Mar 35.0 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
23 Mar 34.5 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
24 Mar 34.9 °C 45 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
25 Mar 36.4 °C 42 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
26 Mar 35.7 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Mar 35.3 °C 47 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
28 Mar 36.2 °C 45 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
29 Mar 35.1 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
30 Mar 36.1 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
31 Mar 35.9 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
1 Apr 36.0 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
2 Apr 35.6 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
3 Apr 35.2 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
4 Apr 34.3 °C 49 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
5 Apr 35.8 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
6 Apr 36.6 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Apr 36.0 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
8 Apr 37.1 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Apr 36.4 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Apr 35.6 °C 47 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Apr 36.4 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Apr 37.3 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Apr 36.4 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Apr 36.7 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Apr 36.1 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Apr 35.3 °C 48 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
17 Apr 35.2 °C 54 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
18 Apr 35.8 °C 49 % 23 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16
19 Apr 32.9 °C 58 % 30 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 12
20 Apr 34.5 °C 51 % 28 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 15
21 Apr 34.1 °C 54 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 19
22 Apr 34.8 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
23 Apr after 35.7 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Apr after 33.2 °C 52 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 Apr after 32.9 °C 57 % 25 km/h 12.4 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2026
After · 29 Apr 2026

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 14 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 75 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak75 µg/m³
Days over the guideline44 days
PM1076 µg/m³
Optical depth1.93
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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)

Detections table · 249Every 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 Pathoomphone fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 March 2026 to 22 April 2026 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 March 2026 to 18 April 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,838 hectares (68.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pathoomphone (6,885 ha, 2.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.