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Pua fire, April 2016 Pua, Bo Kluea

Out · last detection 12 Apr 2016, 06:37 UTC

The fire started on 8 April 2016 in Pua, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,028 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 265th largest in Nan Province since 2016 (of 280 with a page). Number 499 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area
1,028ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
8 Apr 2016 – 12 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Apr
2016
Heat detections
11
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
129MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Apr12 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

8101112

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
40km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 20 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. Pua where it started
    552 ha reached on 10 Apr
    0.7 %
  2. Bo Kluea
    481 ha reached on 8 Apr
    0.5 %

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)
8 Apr 37.1 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Apr 36.9 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.9 mm High 27
10 Apr 37.2 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Apr 39.5 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Apr 39.4 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Apr after 38.5 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Apr after 39.7 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 38
15 Apr after 39.9 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Apr after 39.1 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Apr after 39.6 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Apr after 38.2 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 39
19 Apr after 37.1 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.9 mm High 28
20 Apr after 38.1 °C 31 % 39 km/h 2.4 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Apr 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 · 11Every 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 Pua fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2016 and 12 April 2016: 5 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 1,028 hectares (10.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pua (552 ha, 0.7 %); Bo Kluea (481 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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
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.