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Phookood fire, 6 March 2019 Phookood

Out · last detection 18 Mar 2019, 07:14 UTC

The fire started on 6 March 2019 in Phookood, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,752 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 61th largest in Xiangkhouang since 2016 (of 107 with a page). Number 62 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
2,752ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
6 Mar 2019 – 18 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Mar
2019
Heat detections
90
in a single hotspot: 161 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Mar18 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314161718

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
51km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 19 Mar.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 640 ha in 2016, 1,440 ha in 2017, 1,104 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,491 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Phookood where it started
    2,765 ha reached on 8 Mar
    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)
6 Mar 29.7 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
7 Mar 28.3 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
8 Mar 26.9 °C 45 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
9 Mar 28.5 °C 37 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
10 Mar 28.7 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Mar 29.7 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
12 Mar 29.0 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
13 Mar 28.5 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Mar 29.2 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Mar 27.3 °C 44 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Mar 26.6 °C 58 % 35 km/h 0.8 mm Low 11
17 Mar 27.8 °C 52 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 13
18 Mar 28.3 °C 49 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 14
19 Mar after 27.1 °C 57 % 52 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Feb 2019
After · 25 Mar 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 · 90Every 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 Phookood fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 March 2019 to 18 March 2019 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 March 2019 to 16 March 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,752 hectares (27.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Phookood (2,765 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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

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.