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Phan fire, March 2021 Phan, Mae Suai

Out · last detection 2 Apr 2021, 07:26 UTC

The fire started on 30 March 2021 in Phan, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,622 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 149th largest in Chiang Rai Province since 2016 (of 303 with a page). Number 112 in Thailand in 2021, of 268.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.9 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
1,622ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
30 Mar 2021 – 2 Apr 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
30 Mar
2021
Heat detections
42
in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
97MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Apr 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Mar2 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

303112

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
32km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.6 mm on 3 Apr.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 413 ha in 2016, 721 ha in 2019, 727 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,183 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Phan where it started
    1,321 ha reached on 28 Mar
    1.4 %
  2. Mae Suai
    310 ha reached on 31 Mar
    0.2 %

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)
28 Mar 35.1 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Mar 35.0 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
30 Mar 34.2 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
31 Mar 35.9 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Apr 35.7 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Apr 34.6 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Apr after 33.7 °C 38 % 29 km/h 4.6 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Mar 2021
After · 9 Apr 2021

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 · 42Every 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 Phan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 March 2021 and 2 April 2021: 4 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 1,622 hectares (16.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phan (1,321 ha, 1.4 %); Mae Suai (310 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
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.