Phan fire, March 2026 พาน · Mae Suai, Mueang Chiang Rai, Phan
The fire started on 29 March 2026 in Phan, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,910 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 7th largest in Chiang Rai Province since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 51 in Thailand in 2026, of 689.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 12,910ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 29 Mar 2026 – 20 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 414
- in a single hotspot: 115 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 110MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 13.4 mm on 25 Apr.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,230 ha in 2016, 8,155 ha in 2019, 3,052 ha in 2020, 1,188 ha in 2021, 11,238 ha in 2023, 1,916 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,487 ha that had burned before.
- 8,284 ha Mae Lao fire, March 2023 23,457 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,792 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2019 3,790 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,505 ha Phan fire, March 2019 2,100 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,351 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2016 1,597 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,098 ha Mueang Chiang Rai fire, April 2016 3,590 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 971 ha Mae Suai fire, April 2016 21,629 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 859 ha Mueang Chiang Rai fire, March 2020 1,786 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 44 ha Phan fire, March 2021 1,622 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Bangkok boundary: geoBoundaries · OpenStreetMap, Wambacher · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Mae Suai แม่สรวย7,902 ha5.6 %
-
Mueang Chiang Rai เมืองเชียงราย2,616 ha1.6 %
-
1,622 ha1.6 %
-
Mae Lao แม่ลาว836 ha3.8 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 6.9 hectares of built-up land and about 600 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Mar | 35.8 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 28 Mar | 36.3 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Mar | 35.9 °C | 22 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Mar | 35.8 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 31 Mar | 36.7 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Apr | 35.8 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 2 Apr | 36.4 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Apr | 37.6 °C | 27 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Apr | 36.3 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Apr | 37.0 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 6 Apr | 36.1 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Apr | 36.0 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Apr | 36.3 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Apr | 35.7 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 10 Apr | 35.5 °C | 28 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Apr | 36.9 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Apr | 36.7 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Apr | 37.5 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Apr | 37.1 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Apr | 38.1 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 16 Apr | 36.4 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Apr | 36.6 °C | 30 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Apr | 35.8 °C | 34 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Apr | 35.7 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Apr | 35.0 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Apr after | 36.5 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Apr after | 37.9 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 23 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 43 % | 23 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Apr after | 36.0 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 25 Apr after | 29.6 °C | 66 % | 30 km/h | 13.4 mm | Very low 1 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 17 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 242 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 126: 8.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 414Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,878 haMae Lao แม่ลาวApril 2026 · 23 days · 10 km away
- 21,629 haMae Suai แม่สรวย8 April 2016 · 13 days · 15 km away
- 9,691 haMae Suai แม่สรวย28 March 2026 · 22 days · 16 km away
- 10,574 haMae Suai แม่สรวย20 March 2019 · 17 days · 17 km away
- 23,457 haMae Lao แม่ลาวMarch 2023 · 31 days · 27 km away
- 17,804 haMae Chan แม่จันMarch 2023 · 29 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Phan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 March 2026 and 20 April 2026: 23 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 12,910 hectares (129.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Mae Suai (7,902 ha, 5.6 %); Mueang Chiang Rai (2,616 ha, 1.6 %); Phan (1,622 ha, 1.6 %); Mae Lao (836 ha, 3.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 414 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.