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Pong fire, 5 April 2016 Pong, Tha Wang Pha

Out · last detection 13 Apr 2016, 18:48 UTC

The fire started on 5 April 2016 in Pong, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,442 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 19th largest in Phayao Province since 2016 (of 125 with a page). Number 64 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area
3,442ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
5 Apr 2016 – 12 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
5 Apr
2016
Heat detections
157
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Apr12 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

5678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
37km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 19 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. Pong where it started
    3,397 ha reached on 5 Apr
    2.0 %
  2. Tha Wang Pha
    61 ha reached on 5 Apr
    0.1 %

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)
1 Apr 34.3 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Apr 34.8 °C 29 % 34 km/h 3.8 mm Moderate 13
3 Apr 35.9 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Apr 36.6 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Apr 37.3 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Apr 37.4 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Apr 37.0 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Apr 36.9 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
9 Apr 36.7 °C 36 % 37 km/h 4.8 mm Low 10
10 Apr 36.8 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
11 Apr 38.9 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Apr 39.0 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Apr after 38.3 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Apr after 39.1 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Apr after 39.5 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Apr after 38.7 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Apr after 38.9 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Apr after 37.5 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
19 Apr after 37.2 °C 38 % 44 km/h 1.4 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Mar 2016
After · 19 Apr 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 · 157Every 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 5 April 2016 and 12 April 2016: 8 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 3,442 hectares (34.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pong (3,397 ha, 2.0 %); Tha Wang Pha (61 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 37 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
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.