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Pong fire, 15 March 2016 Pong, Chiang Kham

Out · last detection 18 Mar 2016, 18:36 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2016 in Pong, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,312 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 81th largest in Phayao Province since 2016 (of 125 with a page). Number 323 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

The power measured by the satellite is low (8.2 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
1,312ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
15 Mar 2016 – 18 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Mar
2016
Heat detections
56
in a single hotspot: 8 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
98MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar18 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

15161718

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
40km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Pong where it started
    983 ha reached on 13 Mar
    0.6 %
  2. Chiang Kham
    336 ha reached on 11 Mar
    0.4 %

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)
11 Mar 36.0 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Mar 34.4 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Mar 36.2 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Mar 36.6 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Mar 37.2 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Mar 37.1 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Mar 37.1 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Mar 36.6 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Mar after 36.5 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Mar after 36.7 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Mar after 37.1 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Mar after 36.8 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Mar after 36.4 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Mar after 36.4 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Mar after 32.0 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Mar after 33.5 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Mar after 31.6 °C 49 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
28 Mar after 33.8 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2016
After · 25 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 · 56Every 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 Pong fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2016 and 18 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 1,312 hectares (13.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pong (983 ha, 0.6 %); Chiang Kham (336 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.