Burned area
satellite only1,467ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 6 Mar 2024 – 18 Mar 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
TH · Thailand · –
Sam Ngao fire, 6 March 2024 สามเงา · Sam Ngao, Li
Out · last detection 18 Mar 2024, 06:17 UTC
The fire started on 6 March 2024 in Sam Ngao, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,467 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 149th largest in Tak Province since 2016 (of 266 with a page). Number 148 in Thailand in 2024, of 277.
The power measured by the satellite is low (16.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only13days
6 Mar 2024 to 18 Mar 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 18 Mar 2024, 06:17 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only6 Mar 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 6 Mar 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only48
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 17 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 6 Mar 2024 – 18 Mar 2024
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only30MW
Total radiative power on 7 March 2024; hotspots that day: 7.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 7 Mar 2024
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model29.2FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 7.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 6 Mar 2024, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model36.7°C · 32% RH
High of 36.7 °C and minimum humidity of 32% on 8 March 2024; gusts of 41 km/h on 12 March 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 6 Mar 2024 – 18 Mar 2024
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logStart date: 7 March 2024 → 6 March 2024.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 1,467 ha
- Dates
- 6 Mar 2024 – 18 Mar 2024
- Name
- Sam Ngao
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/sam-ngao-2024-03-4?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire sam-ngao-2024-03-4.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-03-06 | 2 | 5 | 36.3 | 18.9 | 31 | 8.8 | 24.1 | 0 | 29.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-07 | 7 | 30 | 35.5 | 19.5 | 32 | 8.1 | 25.6 | 0 | 33.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-08 | 4 | 16 | 36.7 | 20 | 32 | 9.4 | 28.4 | 0 | 32 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-09 | 4 | 28 | 36.2 | 20.3 | 27 | 12.7 | 37.4 | 0 | 37 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-10 | 5 | 4 | 36.1 | 17.8 | 26 | 11.2 | 30.2 | 0 | 34.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-11 | 2 | 5 | 36.5 | 17.3 | 27 | 8.7 | 24.5 | 0 | 35 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-12 | 1 | 2 | 35.9 | 19 | 29 | 13.9 | 41.4 | 0 | 38.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-13 | 5 | 13 | 34.8 | 17.8 | 26 | 13.3 | 39.6 | 0 | 42.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-14 | 1 | 1 | 35.1 | 16.4 | 30 | 8.4 | 27 | 0 | 34 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-15 | 0 | 0 | 35.2 | 19.1 | 30 | 8.1 | 24.1 | 0 | 35.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-16 | 7 | 27 | 36.3 | 19.4 | 31 | 8.9 | 24.8 | 0 | 35.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-17 | 7 | 20 | 35.6 | 20.2 | 34 | 7.3 | 23.8 | 0 | 32.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-18 | 3 | 18 | 36 | 21.5 | 37 | 6.8 | 15.8 | 0 | 30.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-03-19 | 0 | 0 | 36.1 | 22.2 | 38 | 8.9 | 22.7 | 0 | 31.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2024-03-20 | 0 | 0 | 27.8 | 22.6 | 69 | 9.1 | 27 | 33.6 | 0.4 | muy_bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 1,467ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 6 Mar 2024 – 18 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 48
- in a single hotspot: 17 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 14MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
6 Mar18 Mar
18 Mar 2024
How it evolved, day by day
7 Mar
12 Mar
16 Mar
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
41km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity
It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 33.6 mm on 20 Mar.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 126 ha in 2016, 596 ha in 2017, 571 ha in 2018, 411 ha in 2019, 975 ha in 2020, 1,158 ha in 2021, 514 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,460 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Bangkok boundary: geoBoundaries · OpenStreetMap, Wambacher · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
1,474 ha reached on 6 Mar0.5 %
-
Li ลี้1 ha0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Mar | 36.3 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Mar | 35.5 °C | 32 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Mar | 36.7 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Mar | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Mar | 36.1 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Mar | 36.5 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Mar | 35.9 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Mar | 34.8 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Mar | 35.1 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Mar | 35.2 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Mar | 36.3 °C | 31 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Mar | 35.6 °C | 34 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 18 Mar | 36.0 °C | 37 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Mar after | 36.1 °C | 38 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Mar after | 27.8 °C | 69 % | 27 km/h | 33.6 mm | Very low 0 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 29.2, a minimum humidity of 31% and 7 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.
FWI at the start
29.2
Minimum humidity
31 %
Days without rain
7
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Sam Ngao fire, 6 March 2024
1,467 ha
13 days
FWI 29.2
Min. humidity 31 %
Thoen fire, February 2021
2,305 ha
17 days
FWI 29.0
Min. humidity 31 %
68 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mueang Tak fire, February 2023
1,211 ha
7 days
FWI 29.6
Min. humidity 32 %
95 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.9 mm on 17 Feb.
Li fire, February 2021
3,171 ha
18 days
FWI 27.9
Min. humidity 32 %
11 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Doi Tao fire, March 2023
1,829 ha
13 days
FWI 28.0
Min. humidity 30 %
33 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mae Ramat fire, April 2018
1,892 ha
13 days
FWI 28.2
Min. humidity 32 %
50 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.2 mm on 28 Apr.
What happened to them
- 7 days
- median duration
- 1,707 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.0 mm
- rain at the end (median; 7 of 19 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (1,467 ha against a median of 1,707 ha) and lasted 13 days, against 7 days.
In 12 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
33.6 mmfirst rain
20 Mar2 days after it ended
41km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 18 Mar, and on 20 Mar 33.6 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 7 of 19, with a median of 2.0 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 28 Feb 2024
After · 25 Mar 2024
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 17 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 66 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak66 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM10100 µg/m³
Optical depth2.11
WHO 15
5 Mar9 Mar13 Mar17 Mar21 Mar
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 48Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 19,796 haLi ลี้23 March 2026 · 33 days · 14 km away
- 28,424 haLi ลี้19 March 2026 · 32 days · 26 km away
- 21,073 haMae Phrik แม่พริกFebruary 2019 · 37 days · 30 km away
- 12,196 haMae Phrik แม่พริก1 March 2024 · 19 days · 31 km away
- 18,226 haMae Phrik แม่พริก6 March 2025 · 27 days · 33 km away
- 45,160 haMae Phrik แม่พริกMarch 2026 · 37 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sam Ngao fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 March 2024 to 18 March 2024 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 March 2024 to 18 March 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,467 hectares (14.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sam Ngao (1,474 ha, 0.5 %); Li (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 19. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 1,707 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 12 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 mm.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 7 March 2024 → 6 March 2024.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 March 2024 to 18 March 2024. 48 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.