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Phiang fire, 9 March 2019 Phiang, Xayabury

Out · last detection 11 Apr 2019, 18:53 UTC

The fire started on 9 March 2019 in Phiang, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,323 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Xaignabouli since 2016 (of 122 with a page). Number 2 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
20,323ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
34days
9 Mar 2019 – 11 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
9 Mar
2019
Heat detections
1,154
in a single hotspot: 297 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
22.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Mar11 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415161718192122232425262728293031123467891011

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
38km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 5 Apr.

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,606 ha in 2016, 7,703 ha in 2017, 3,189 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,536 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Phiang where it started
    15,949 ha reached on 9 Mar
    5.7 %
  2. Xayabury
    4,482 ha reached on 9 Mar
    2.0 %

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)
16 Mar 33.3 °C 54 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Mar 34.1 °C 52 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
18 Mar 34.0 °C 51 % 34 km/h 2.3 mm Low 7
19 Mar 31.7 °C 60 % 37 km/h 11.7 mm Very low 1
20 Mar 35.2 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
21 Mar 36.5 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
22 Mar 36.4 °C 31 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Mar 35.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
24 Mar 31.8 °C 56 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
25 Mar 33.5 °C 54 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
26 Mar 33.6 °C 56 % 33 km/h 1.3 mm Low 9
27 Mar 31.2 °C 63 % 32 km/h 10.2 mm Very low 1
28 Mar 33.1 °C 50 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Very low 4
29 Mar 35.6 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13
30 Mar 35.3 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
31 Mar 35.7 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 16
1 Apr 34.3 °C 50 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
2 Apr 32.9 °C 60 % 33 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 4
3 Apr 32.4 °C 59 % 34 km/h 1.9 mm Very low 3
4 Apr 32.0 °C 67 % 30 km/h 8.3 mm Very low 0
5 Apr 30.1 °C 68 % 34 km/h 4.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Mar 2019
After · 18 Apr 2019

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 · 1,154Every 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 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 9 March 2019 to 11 April 2019 (34 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 March 2019 to 4 April 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 20,323 hectares (203.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phiang (15,949 ha, 5.7 %); Xayabury (4,482 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
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

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.