Phonxay fire, 8 April 2018 Phonxay, Luangprabang
The fire started on 8 April 2018 in Phonxay, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,228 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 12th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 293 with a page). Number 5 in Laos in 2018, of 87.
- Burnt area
- 11,228ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 8 Apr 2018 – 14 Apr 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Apr
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 389
- in a single hotspot: 217 MW
- Danger at start
- 2
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 10.7GW
- sum of detected power
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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 21.1 mm on 15 Apr.
This area had burned before
63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,450 ha in 2016, 5,265 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,048 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Phonxay where it started11,170 ha reached on 8 Apr4.3 %
-
117 ha reached on 9 Apr0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Apr | 26.2 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 9 Apr | 29.8 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 10 Apr | 32.1 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 11 Apr | 32.3 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 12 Apr | 32.6 °C | 42 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 13 Apr | 34.8 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 14 Apr | 33.9 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 15 Apr after | 28.9 °C | 64 % | 29 km/h | 21.1 mm | Very low 0 |
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.
Detections table · 389Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Phonxay fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2018 and 14 April 2018: 7 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 11,228 hectares (112.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phonxay (11,170 ha, 4.3 %); Luangprabang (117 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, 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.
Report an error
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.