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Pong fire, 26 March 2020 Pong, Tha Wang Pha, Song Khwae

Out · last detection 5 Apr 2020, 18:03 UTC

The fire started on 26 March 2020 in Pong, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,283 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 38th largest in Phayao Province since 2016 (of 125 with a page). Number 198 in Thailand in 2020, of 666.

Burnt area
2,283ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
26 Mar 2020 – 5 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
26 Mar
2020
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
281MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Mar5 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

26272829303112345

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
45km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 9 Apr.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 577 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Pong where it started
    1,883 ha reached on 23 Mar
    1.1 %
  2. Tha Wang Pha
    259 ha reached on 27 Mar
    0.3 %
  3. Song Khwae
    154 ha reached on 27 Mar
    0.3 %

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)
17 Mar 35.4 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Mar 36.3 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Mar 34.1 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Mar 33.8 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Mar 35.0 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Mar 35.3 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.8 mm High 35
23 Mar 34.6 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Mar 34.9 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Mar 34.5 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Mar 35.5 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Mar 36.1 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Mar 36.1 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Mar 36.7 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Mar 37.0 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Mar 37.3 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Apr 38.0 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Apr 37.1 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Apr 37.3 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Apr 37.3 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Apr 35.8 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Apr after 34.6 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Apr after 34.7 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Apr after 36.5 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Apr after 33.8 °C 37 % 49 km/h 2.5 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Mar 2020
After · 12 Apr 2020

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 · 85Every 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 26 March 2020 and 5 April 2020: 11 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 2,283 hectares (22.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pong (1,883 ha, 1.1 %); Tha Wang Pha (259 ha, 0.3 %); Song Khwae (154 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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.