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Phrao fire, April 2016 Phrao, Mae Taeng

Out · last detection 26 Apr 2016, 19:45 UTC

The fire started on 22 April 2016 in Phrao, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,327 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 289th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 317 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,327ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
22 Apr 2016 – 25 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
22 Apr
2016
Heat detections
41
in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
164MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Apr25 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
58km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 29 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Phrao where it started
    1,070 ha reached on 22 Apr
    0.8 %
  2. Mae Taeng
    264 ha reached on 23 Apr
    0.2 %

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)
22 Apr 36.5 °C 36 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Apr 39.5 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Apr 39.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Apr 38.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Apr after 39.3 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Apr after 40.9 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Apr after 41.3 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Apr after 38.1 °C 43 % 28 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Apr 2016
After · 2 May 2016

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 · 41Every 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 Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Phrao fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 April 2016 and 25 April 2016: 4 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 1,327 hectares (13.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phrao (1,070 ha, 0.8 %); Mae Taeng (264 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Thailand (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.

Emergency number: 199 · 191

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 199 · 191.

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.