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Phiang fire, April 2019 Phiang

Out · last detection 20 Apr 2019, 19:25 UTC

The fire started on 7 April 2019 in Phiang, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,106 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 56th largest in Xaignabouli since 2016 (of 122 with a page). Number 50 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
3,106ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
7 Apr 2019 – 20 Apr 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
7 Apr
2019
Heat detections
122
in a single hotspot: 153 MW
Danger at start
0
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
764MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Apr 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Apr20 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

789101112131516181920

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
35km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.6 mm on 22 Apr.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,168 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Phiang where it started
    3,119 ha reached on 7 Apr
    1.1 %

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)
7 Apr 27.3 °C 60 % 31 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 0
8 Apr 31.2 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
9 Apr 31.0 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
10 Apr 30.6 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
11 Apr 31.8 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
12 Apr 31.5 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
13 Apr 31.4 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
14 Apr 32.1 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
15 Apr 30.4 °C 54 % 35 km/h 0.8 mm Low 8
16 Apr 31.9 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
17 Apr 31.3 °C 53 % 32 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 2
18 Apr 32.3 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm Low 9
19 Apr 32.9 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 14
20 Apr 33.2 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
21 Apr after 32.6 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
22 Apr after 31.3 °C 46 % 31 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Mar 2019
After · 27 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 · 122Every 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 7 April 2019 to 20 April 2019 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 April 2019 to 13 April 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,106 hectares (31.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Phiang (3,119 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, 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.