How long did the Pha Oudom fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 March 2019 to 9 April 2019 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 March 2019 to 3 April 2019.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,277 hectares (52.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pha Oudom (4,556 ha, 2.7 %); Huoixai (750 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.

LA · Laos · 2019-03-19 → 2019-04-09

Pha Oudom fire, 19 March 2019 Pha Oudom, Huoixai

Out · last detection 10 Apr 2019, 19:12 UTC

The fire started on 19 March 2019 in Pha Oudom, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,277 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Bokeo since 2016 (of 59 with a page). Number 16 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area: 5,277ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 22days; 19 Mar 2019 – 9 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 19 Mar; 2019
Heat detections: 185; in a single hotspot: 422 MW
Danger at start: 33; High · FWI index
Energy released: 8.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Apr 2019

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Mar9 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

192021222325262728293031123458910

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

43km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,348 ha in 2016, 2,135 ha in 2017, 1,853 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,246 ha that had burned before.

1,057 ha Wiang Kaen fire, March 2016 1,636 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Pha Oudom where it started

4,556 ha reached on 19 Mar

2.7 %
Huoixai

750 ha reached on 23 Mar

0.4 %

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)
19 Mar	36.5 °C	33 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
20 Mar	36.6 °C	27 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
21 Mar	36.4 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
22 Mar	35.9 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
23 Mar	36.7 °C	22 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
24 Mar	35.0 °C	39 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 Mar	36.2 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	High 31
26 Mar	36.6 °C	42 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
27 Mar	36.3 °C	36 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
28 Mar	35.2 °C	32 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
29 Mar	36.2 °C	22 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
30 Mar	35.9 °C	28 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
31 Mar	36.5 °C	36 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
1 Apr	37.5 °C	28 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
2 Apr	35.8 °C	34 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
3 Apr	36.1 °C	39 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
4 Apr	37.2 °C	28 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
5 Apr	36.5 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
6 Apr	36.2 °C	32 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
7 Apr	36.9 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	High 36
8 Apr	37.9 °C	26 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
9 Apr	38.1 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
10 Apr after	38.2 °C	27 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
11 Apr after	38.2 °C	26 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
12 Apr after	38.7 °C	29 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
13 Apr after	39.5 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
14 Apr after	39.4 °C	29 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
15 Apr after	40.2 °C	25 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
16 Apr after	39.6 °C	30 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
17 Apr after	39.4 °C	29 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
18 Apr after	40.0 °C	28 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
19 Apr after	40.4 °C	25 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 12 Mar 2019

After · 16 Apr 2019

Before After

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 · 185Every 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

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 19 March 2019 to 9 April 2019 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 March 2019 to 3 April 2019.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,277 hectares (52.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pha Oudom (4,556 ha, 2.7 %); Huoixai (750 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned