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Samoeng fire, March 2016 Samoeng, Hang Dong, Mae Rim

Out · last detection 6 Apr 2016, 19:20 UTC

The fire started on 20 March 2016 in Samoeng, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,979 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Chiang Mai Province since 2016 (of 463 with a page). Number 5 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area
12,979ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
20 Mar 2016 – 5 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
20 Mar
2016
Heat detections
505
in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Mar5 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2021222324252627283031123456

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
40km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 8 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. Samoeng where it started
    12,237 ha reached on 16 Mar
    12 %
  2. Hang Dong
    763 ha reached on 20 Mar
    2.9 %
  3. Mae Rim
    46 ha reached on 23 Mar
    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)
16 Mar 35.0 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
17 Mar 35.5 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Mar 35.4 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Mar 34.6 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
20 Mar 35.1 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Mar 35.9 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Mar 35.2 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Mar 35.5 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar 33.8 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Mar 31.3 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Mar 32.0 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
27 Mar 33.6 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Mar 32.5 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm High 23
29 Mar 33.3 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Mar 34.2 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
31 Mar 36.1 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Apr 34.2 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Apr 33.6 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Apr 35.5 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Apr 35.9 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Apr 36.7 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Apr after 35.6 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Apr after 36.6 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Apr after 35.5 °C 33 % 24 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Mar 2016
After · 12 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 · 505Every 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 Samoeng fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 March 2016 and 5 April 2016: 17 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 12,979 hectares (129.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Samoeng (12,237 ha, 12 %); Hang Dong (763 ha, 2.9 %); Mae Rim (46 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.