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Pha Oudom fire, 3 April 2016 Pha Oudom

Out · last detection 23 Apr 2016, 19:01 UTC

The fire started on 3 April 2016 in Pha Oudom, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,153 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 11th largest in Bokeo since 2016 (of 59 with a page). Number 10 in Laos in 2016, of 143.

Burnt area
6,153ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
3 Apr 2016 – 23 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
3 Apr
2016
Heat detections
233
in a single hotspot: 381 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
13.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Apr23 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

34567911121314151617181923

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
50km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.3 mm on 1 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Pha Oudom where it started
    6,183 ha reached on 3 Apr
    3.6 %

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)
3 Apr 34.7 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Apr 36.1 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Apr 36.5 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Apr 36.0 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Apr 37.2 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Apr 36.6 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Apr 37.7 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
10 Apr 37.7 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Apr 38.8 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Apr 38.6 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Apr 37.5 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Apr 38.4 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Apr 38.6 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Apr 38.2 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Apr 38.0 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Apr 37.8 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Apr 37.0 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.8 mm High 29
20 Apr 37.4 °C 31 % 42 km/h 9.1 mm Low 11
21 Apr 37.8 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
22 Apr 36.0 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
23 Apr 35.8 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Apr after 36.2 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
25 Apr after 35.6 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Apr after 37.5 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Apr after 39.2 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Apr after 39.7 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Apr after 36.9 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.8 mm High 26
30 Apr after 31.3 °C 58 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 17
1 May after 35.4 °C 44 % 37 km/h 9.3 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Mar 2016
After · 30 Apr 2016

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 · 233Every 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 Pha Oudom fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 April 2016 to 23 April 2016 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 April 2016 to 18 April 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,153 hectares (61.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pha Oudom (6,183 ha, 3.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.