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Phaisali fire, December 2016 Phaisali

Out · last detection 24 Dec 2016, 06:36 UTC

The fire started on 17 December 2016 in Phaisali, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,479 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 21th largest in Nakhon Sawan Province since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 262 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,479ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
17 Dec 2016 – 23 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Dec
2016
Heat detections
56
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
186MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Dec23 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

171920222324

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
39km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 1 Jan.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Phaisali where it started
    1,489 ha reached on 10 Dec
    1.5 %

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)
10 Dec 30.8 °C 43 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
11 Dec 30.1 °C 48 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
12 Dec 31.1 °C 42 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
13 Dec 32.3 °C 42 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
14 Dec 34.2 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
15 Dec 29.8 °C 55 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 15
16 Dec 28.0 °C 54 % 39 km/h 1.1 mm Low 10
17 Dec 28.7 °C 50 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
18 Dec 31.4 °C 49 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
19 Dec 32.6 °C 49 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
20 Dec 33.6 °C 48 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
21 Dec 34.3 °C 46 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
22 Dec 33.5 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Dec 32.6 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
24 Dec after 33.3 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
25 Dec after 33.9 °C 47 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
26 Dec after 34.2 °C 45 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Dec after 32.2 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
28 Dec after 29.6 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Dec after 29.4 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Dec after 29.6 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
31 Dec after 29.5 °C 50 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 18
1 Jan after 29.3 °C 60 % 31 km/h 1.9 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Dec 2016
After · 30 Dec 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 · 56Every 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 Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Phaisali fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 December 2016 and 23 December 2016: 7 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,479 hectares (14.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Phaisali (1,489 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 19, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Thailand (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.

Emergency number: 199 · 191

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 199 · 191.

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.