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Pua fire, March 2020 Pua

Out · last detection 29 Mar 2020, 18:34 UTC

The fire started on 21 March 2020 in Pua, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,818 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 105th largest in Nan Province since 2016 (of 280 with a page). Number 272 in Thailand in 2020, of 666.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.8 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
1,818ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
21 Mar 2020 – 28 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Mar
2020
Heat detections
59
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
323MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Mar 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Mar28 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,174 ha in 2016, 381 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,092 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pua where it started
    1,829 ha reached on 21 Mar
    2.3 %

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)
21 Mar 29.7 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Mar 30.6 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Mar 29.3 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Mar 29.9 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Mar 28.9 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Mar 30.7 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Mar 31.5 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Mar 31.8 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Mar after 32.4 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Mar after 32.8 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Mar after 33.1 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Apr after 33.6 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Apr after 32.5 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Apr after 32.8 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Apr after 32.6 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Apr after 30.9 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Apr after 29.8 °C 43 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Apr after 29.6 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Mar 2020
After · 4 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 · 59Every 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 21 March 2020 and 28 March 2020: 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 1,818 hectares (18.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pua (1,829 ha, 2.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 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.