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Phrao fire, 23 March 2019 Phrao

Out · last detection 26 Mar 2019, 18:53 UTC

The fire started on 23 March 2019 in Phrao, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,023 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 440th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 485 in Thailand in 2019, of 503.

The power measured by the satellite is low (5.3 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
1,023ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
23 Mar 2019 – 26 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
23 Mar
2019
Heat detections
21
in a single hotspot: 5 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
56MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Mar26 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

23242526

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
34km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 456 ha in 2016, 211 ha in 2017, 237 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 532 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Phrao where it started
    1,029 ha reached on 23 Mar
    0.8 %

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)
23 Mar 32.7 °C 27 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar 33.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Mar 33.4 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Mar 32.3 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Mar after 32.3 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Mar after 32.2 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Mar after 33.5 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Mar after 32.9 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Mar after 33.1 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Apr after 33.8 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Apr after 33.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Apr after 33.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Apr after 34.3 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Apr after 34.0 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Mar 2019
After · 2 Apr 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 · 21Every 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 23 March 2019 and 26 March 2019: 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 1,023 hectares (10.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Phrao (1,029 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class 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.