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Phu Ruea fire, 16 March 2016 Phu Ruea, Wang Saphung

Out · last detection 24 Mar 2016, 18:24 UTC

The fire started on 16 March 2016 in Phu Ruea, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,095 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 35th largest in Loei Province since 2016 (of 192 with a page). Number 83 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.9 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
3,095ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
16 Mar 2016 – 24 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
16 Mar
2016
Heat detections
95
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
579MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Mar24 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324

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
41km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 30 Mar.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Phu Ruea where it started
    1,715 ha reached on 17 Mar
    2.5 %
  2. Wang Saphung
    1,398 ha reached on 16 Mar
    1.3 %

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)
10 Mar 34.0 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Mar 29.6 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Mar 29.2 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
13 Mar 32.3 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Mar 32.9 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Mar 33.7 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
16 Mar 33.5 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Mar 33.7 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Mar 33.9 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Mar 33.4 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Mar 33.2 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Mar 33.3 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Mar 33.7 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Mar 33.8 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Mar 34.0 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Mar after 25.1 °C 46 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Mar after 27.5 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Mar after 25.8 °C 45 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Mar after 27.3 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Mar after 28.2 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Mar after 30.1 °C 43 % 24 km/h 1.6 mm Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Mar 2016
After · 31 Mar 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 · 95Every 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 Phu Ruea fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 March 2016 and 24 March 2016: 9 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 3,095 hectares (31.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phu Ruea (1,715 ha, 2.5 %); Wang Saphung (1,398 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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
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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.