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Song fire, 11 March 2016 Song, Mae Mo

Out · last detection 18 Mar 2016, 18:36 UTC

The fire started on 11 March 2016 in Song, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,002 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 119th largest in Phrae Province since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 524 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

The power measured by the satellite is low (5.2 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
1,002ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
11 Mar 2016 – 18 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
11 Mar
2016
Heat detections
20
in a single hotspot: 5 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
51MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Mar18 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

111315161718

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
41km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Song where it started
    963 ha reached on 11 Mar
    0.6 %
  2. Mae Mo
    44 ha
    0.0 %

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)
11 Mar 35.9 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Mar 34.6 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Mar 36.3 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Mar 36.9 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Mar 37.5 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Mar 37.0 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Mar 37.3 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Mar 37.4 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Mar after 37.0 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Mar after 37.1 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Mar after 37.4 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Mar after 37.5 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Mar after 36.7 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Mar after 37.6 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Mar after 33.9 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
26 Mar after 33.6 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Mar after 32.5 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
28 Mar after 33.1 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Mar 2016
After · 25 Mar 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 · 20Every 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 Song fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 March 2016 and 18 March 2016: 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 1,002 hectares (10.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Song (963 ha, 0.6 %); Mae Mo (44 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.