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Phonxay fire, 27 March 2022 Phonxay

Out · last detection 9 Apr 2022, 06:11 UTC

The fire started on 27 March 2022 in Phonxay, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,734 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 60th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 293 with a page). Number 16 in Laos in 2022, of 75.

Burnt area
4,734ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
27 Mar 2022 – 9 Apr 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
27 Mar
2022
Heat detections
193
in a single hotspot: 178 MW
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
4.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Apr 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Mar9 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

27283113456789

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 16 Apr.

This area had burned before

96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,118 ha in 2016, 2,854 ha in 2017, 2,169 ha in 2018, 3,328 ha in 2019, 906 ha in 2020, 1,765 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,546 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Phonxay where it started
    4,759 ha reached on 27 Mar
    1.8 %

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)
27 Mar 32.1 °C 49 % 27 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 1
28 Mar 26.0 °C 71 % 24 km/h 17.4 mm Very low 0
29 Mar 22.9 °C 87 % 23 km/h 16.6 mm Very low 0
30 Mar 27.3 °C 69 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 0
31 Mar 29.5 °C 59 % 25 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 0
1 Apr 26.8 °C 58 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 1
2 Apr 20.3 °C 61 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
3 Apr 24.0 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
4 Apr 27.7 °C 48 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
5 Apr 29.8 °C 50 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
6 Apr 25.9 °C 64 % 19 km/h 0.5 mm Very low 4
7 Apr 26.1 °C 55 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
8 Apr 29.2 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
9 Apr 29.1 °C 52 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm Low 8
10 Apr after 28.7 °C 52 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm Low 8
11 Apr after 29.8 °C 53 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
12 Apr after 29.0 °C 55 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
13 Apr after 32.0 °C 49 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm Low 8
14 Apr after 32.2 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
15 Apr after 31.6 °C 54 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
16 Apr after 31.1 °C 53 % 27 km/h 3.6 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Mar 2022
After · 16 Apr 2022

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 · 193Every 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 Phonxay fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 March 2022 to 9 April 2022 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 April 2022 to 7 April 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,734 hectares (47.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Phonxay (4,759 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 8, class Low.
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

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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.