Burned area
satellite only6,009ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 16 Mar 2023 – 4 Apr 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
LA · Laos · –
Phoukhoune fire, 16 March 2023 Phookood, Phoukhoune
Out · last detection 4 Apr 2023, 07:04 UTC
The fire started on 16 March 2023 in Phoukhoune, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,009 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 28th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 257 with a page). Number 49 in Laos in 2023, of 239.
Use this data
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Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
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Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only20days
16 Mar 2023 to 4 Apr 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 4 Apr 2023, 07:04 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only16 Mar 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 16 Mar 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only197
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 348 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 16 Mar 2023 – 4 Apr 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only2,571MW
Total radiative power on 22 March 2023; hotspots that day: 27.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 22 Mar 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model15.7FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 16 Mar 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model33.6°C · 31% RH
High of 33.6 °C and minimum humidity of 31% on 25 March 2023; gusts of 48 km/h on 21 March 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 16 Mar 2023 – 4 Apr 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 40people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 0.20 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 6,009 ha
- Dates
- 16 Mar 2023 – 4 Apr 2023
- Name
- Phoukhoune
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/phoukhoune-2023-03-3?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire phoukhoune-2023-03-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-03-16 | 1 | 1 | 28 | 16 | 50 | 7.6 | 25.9 | 0.3 | 15.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-03-17 | 0 | 0 | 28.1 | 16.6 | 54 | 7.6 | 28.4 | 3 | 3.3 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2023-03-18 | 4 | 39 | 31.1 | 17 | 50 | 8.9 | 33.5 | 5.4 | 2.3 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2023-03-19 | 0 | 0 | 31.2 | 17.4 | 50 | 11.5 | 40.7 | 0.7 | 7.2 | bajo | 1 |
| 2023-03-20 | 4 | 91 | 31.7 | 18.6 | 46 | 11.4 | 39.2 | 3.5 | 3.6 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2023-03-21 | 32 | 515 | 31.5 | 17.8 | 46 | 15.5 | 47.5 | 3.3 | 4.1 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2023-03-22 | 27 | 2,571 | 32.5 | 17.4 | 36 | 15.8 | 46.4 | 0.2 | 14.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-03-23 | 68 | 1,786 | 32.9 | 17.6 | 36 | 15.3 | 45.4 | 0.1 | 17.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-03-24 | 13 | 206 | 33.4 | 17.8 | 33 | 14.3 | 41 | 0 | 18.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-03-25 | 8 | 165 | 33.6 | 16.4 | 31 | 14.6 | 45.4 | 0 | 20.5 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-03-26 | 6 | 36 | 31.8 | 16.4 | 35 | 14.3 | 43.2 | 0 | 21 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-03-27 | 3 | 358 | 31.3 | 16.9 | 40 | 13.2 | 37.8 | 0 | 20.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-03-28 | 4 | 45 | 30 | 18.3 | 53 | 13.8 | 41 | 0.7 | 13.1 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-03-29 | 2 | 11 | 30.9 | 18.7 | 46 | 13.9 | 39.2 | 1.3 | 10.8 | bajo | 1 |
| 2023-03-30 | 3 | 49 | 29.4 | 18.2 | 56 | 11.1 | 34.2 | 3.3 | 3.2 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2023-03-31 | 4 | 26 | 29.5 | 17.4 | 52 | 12.3 | 40 | 0.2 | 8.4 | bajo | 1 |
| 2023-04-01 | 0 | 0 | 30.9 | 18.6 | 46 | 13.2 | 41.8 | 0 | 13.8 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-04-02 | 4 | 16 | 33 | 19.2 | 36 | 16 | 45.4 | 0 | 20.5 | moderado | 1 |
| 2023-04-03 | 13 | 564 | 32.3 | 19.2 | 34 | 16.3 | 47.2 | 0 | 22.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-04-04 | 1 | 3 | 33.3 | 18.7 | 31 | 15.7 | 45 | 0 | 24.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-04-05 | 0 | 0 | 33.5 | 16.9 | 32 | 11.8 | 36.7 | 0 | 23.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-06 | 0 | 0 | 34.2 | 16.3 | 30 | 6.2 | 19.8 | 0 | 21.3 | moderado | 0 |
| 2023-04-07 | 0 | 0 | 32.3 | 17.7 | 41 | 12.8 | 35.3 | 0 | 24.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-04-08 | 0 | 0 | 29.6 | 18.9 | 60 | 8.9 | 30.6 | 4.6 | 2.8 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 6,009ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 16 Mar 2023 – 4 Apr 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 197
- in a single hotspot: 348 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 381MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
16 Mar4 Apr
4 Apr 2023
How it evolved, day by day
16 Mar
22 Mar
26 Mar
30 Mar
4 Apr
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
34°high
48km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.6 mm on 8 Apr.
This area had burned before
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2 ha in 2016, 2,070 ha in 2017, 50 ha in 2018, 2,883 ha in 2019, 2,888 ha in 2020, 1,009 ha in 2021, 2,009 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,167 ha that had burned before.
- 2,009 ha Phookood fire, April 2022 2,410 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,648 ha Phoukhoune fire, April 2017 2,823 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,236 ha Phoukhoune fire, March 2020 4,338 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,097 ha Phoukhoune fire, March 2019 2,401 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,009 ha Phoukhoune fire, March 2021 2,023 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 422 ha Phookood fire, March 2017 8,774 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
3,701 ha reached on 20 Mar1.5 %
-
Phoukhoune where it started2,334 ha reached on 16 Mar1.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area0.20 ha
Residents≈ 40
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.20 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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 | 28.0 °C | 50 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 17 Mar | 28.1 °C | 54 % | 28 km/h | 3.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 18 Mar | 31.1 °C | 50 % | 34 km/h | 5.4 mm | Very low 2 |
| 19 Mar | 31.2 °C | 50 % | 41 km/h | 0.7 mm | Low 7 |
| 20 Mar | 31.7 °C | 46 % | 39 km/h | 3.5 mm | Very low 4 |
| 21 Mar | 31.5 °C | 46 % | 48 km/h | 3.3 mm | Very low 4 |
| 22 Mar | 32.5 °C | 36 % | 46 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 23 Mar | 32.9 °C | 36 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 24 Mar | 33.4 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 25 Mar | 33.6 °C | 31 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Mar | 31.8 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Mar | 31.3 °C | 40 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 28 Mar | 30.0 °C | 53 % | 41 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 29 Mar | 30.9 °C | 46 % | 39 km/h | 1.3 mm | Low 11 |
| 30 Mar | 29.4 °C | 56 % | 34 km/h | 3.3 mm | Very low 3 |
| 31 Mar | 29.5 °C | 52 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 1 Apr | 30.9 °C | 46 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 2 Apr | 33.0 °C | 36 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Apr | 32.3 °C | 34 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Apr | 33.3 °C | 31 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 5 Apr after | 33.5 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Apr after | 34.2 °C | 30 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 7 Apr after | 32.3 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Apr after | 29.6 °C | 60 % | 31 km/h | 4.6 mm | Very low 3 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 15.7, a minimum humidity of 50% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 61.
FWI at the start
15.7
Minimum humidity
50 %
Days without rain
3
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Phoukhoune fire, 16 March 2023
6,009 ha
20 days
FWI 15.7
Min. humidity 50 %
Nambak fire, March 2016
3,206 ha
9 days
FWI 15.4
Min. humidity 51 %
115 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 9 Apr.
Nga fire, April 2016
3,155 ha
18 days
FWI 15.2
Min. humidity 49 %
113 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 19 Apr.
Phonxay fire, March 2016
3,078 ha
15 days
FWI 11.4
Min. humidity 50 %
57 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.8 mm on 18 Apr.
Phoukhoune fire, March 2019
2,415 ha
11 days
FWI 18.2
Min. humidity 48 %
24 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.3 mm on 19 Mar.
Phookood fire, March 2019
2,752 ha
15 days
FWI 15.2
Min. humidity 46 %
16 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.7 mm on 19 Mar.
What happened to them
- 9 days
- median duration
- 3,045 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 7.5 mm
- rain at the end (median; 61 of 61 had it)
It was 2.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 20 days, against 9 days.
Only 5 of its 61 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 7.5 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
4.6 mmfirst rain
8 Apr4 days after it ended
48km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 4 Apr, and on 8 Apr 4.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 61 of 61, with a median of 7.5 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 9 Mar 2023
After · 11 Apr 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 27 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 330 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 181: 12 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak330 µg/m³
Days over the guideline25 days
PM10472 µg/m³
Optical depth2.64
WHO 15
14 Mar19 Mar24 Mar29 Mar3 Apr
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 197Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 23,397 haPhookood17 March 2026 · 37 days · 7 km away
- 8,774 haPhookood20 March 2017 · 9 days · 10 km away
- 6,178 haPhookood21 March 2025 · 10 days · 15 km away
- 13,405 haPhoukhoune19 March 2026 · 21 days · 18 km away
- 23,084 haPhoukhoune20 March 2026 · 28 days · 31 km away
- 8,677 haVangviengMarch 2026 · 30 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Phoukhoune fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 March 2023 to 4 April 2023 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 March 2023 to 28 March 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,009 hectares (60.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phookood (3,701 ha, 1.5 %); Phoukhoune (2,334 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 61. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 3,045 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 5 of its 61 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 7.5 mm.
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
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 20 March 2023 to 28 March 2023. 197 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.