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Phu Ruea fire, 20 March 2016 Phu Ruea

Out · last detection 23 Mar 2016, 18:42 UTC

The fire started on 20 March 2016 in Phu Ruea, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,389 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 111th largest in Loei Province since 2016 (of 192 with a page). Number 287 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.8 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
1,389ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
20 Mar 2016 – 23 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
20 Mar
2016
Heat detections
34
in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
149MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Mar23 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

20212223

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
39km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 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
    1,397 ha reached on 20 Mar
    2.0 %

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)
13 Mar 33.3 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
14 Mar 34.0 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Mar 34.7 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
16 Mar 34.5 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Mar 34.8 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Mar 35.0 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Mar 34.4 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Mar 34.3 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Mar 34.4 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Mar 34.7 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Mar 34.8 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Mar after 35.1 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Mar after 26.1 °C 46 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Mar after 28.6 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Mar after 26.8 °C 45 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
28 Mar after 28.3 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
29 Mar after 29.3 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
30 Mar after 31.2 °C 43 % 24 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Mar 2016
After · 30 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 · 34Every 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 20 March 2016 and 23 March 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 1,389 hectares (13.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Phu Ruea (1,397 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 39 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.