How long did the Phiang fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 March 2016 to 23 April 2016 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 April 2016 to 16 April 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,336 hectares (53.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Xayabury (3,262 ha, 1.4 %); Phiang (2,101 ha, 0.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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 · 2016-03-28 → 2016-04-23

Phiang fire, March 2016 Xayabury, Phiang

Out · last detection 23 Apr 2016, 06:31 UTC

The fire started on 28 March 2016 in Phiang, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,336 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Xaignabouli since 2016 (of 122 with a page). Number 16 in Laos in 2016, of 143.

Burnt area: 5,336ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 27days; 28 Mar 2016 – 23 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 28 Mar; 2016
Heat detections: 268; in a single hotspot: 211 MW
Danger at start: 21; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 5.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Apr 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Mar23 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

28312345678910111213141516171920212223

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

The weather it burned in

40°high

47km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.3 mm on 29 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Xayabury

3,262 ha reached on 31 Mar

1.4 %
Phiang where it started

2,101 ha reached on 28 Mar

0.8 %

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	31.1 °C	43 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
29 Mar	31.5 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
30 Mar	32.9 °C	45 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 21
31 Mar	32.5 °C	47 %	26 km/h	0.3 mm	High 23
1 Apr	31.2 °C	56 %	36 km/h	1.2 mm	Moderate 12
2 Apr	30.4 °C	59 %	34 km/h	1.7 mm	Low 7
3 Apr	35.3 °C	31 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
4 Apr	36.9 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
5 Apr	37.1 °C	29 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
6 Apr	38.3 °C	27 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
7 Apr	37.5 °C	32 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
8 Apr	36.7 °C	35 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
9 Apr	36.5 °C	41 %	37 km/h	2.1 mm	Moderate 14
10 Apr	37.8 °C	33 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
11 Apr	39.3 °C	28 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
12 Apr	39.4 °C	28 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
13 Apr	38.8 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
14 Apr	39.7 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
15 Apr	39.9 °C	26 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Apr	39.2 °C	27 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
17 Apr	40.2 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
18 Apr	37.4 °C	37 %	47 km/h	1.3 mm	High 27
19 Apr	33.8 °C	54 %	40 km/h	1.7 mm	Moderate 12
20 Apr	33.4 °C	54 %	37 km/h	10.1 mm	Very low 4
21 Apr	36.1 °C	46 %	37 km/h	1.3 mm	Low 10
22 Apr	36.9 °C	34 %	47 km/h	0.4 mm	High 24
23 Apr	37.3 °C	33 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
24 Apr after	37.6 °C	36 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
25 Apr after	36.6 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
26 Apr after	37.6 °C	36 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
27 Apr after	38.0 °C	35 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
28 Apr after	37.0 °C	44 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
29 Apr after	34.2 °C	59 %	34 km/h	8.3 mm	Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Mar 2016

After · 30 Apr 2016

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 · 268Every 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 Phiang fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 March 2016 to 23 April 2016 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 April 2016 to 16 April 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,336 hectares (53.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Xayabury (3,262 ha, 1.4 %); Phiang (2,101 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 40.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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