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Song fire, 14 March 2016 Song

Out · last detection 22 Mar 2016, 06:30 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2016 in Song, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,155 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 86th largest in Phrae Province since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 397 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.6 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
1,155ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
14 Mar 2016 – 21 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Mar
2016
Heat detections
31
in a single hotspot: 10 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
118MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
38km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 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
    1,161 ha reached on 15 Mar
    0.8 %

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)
14 Mar 38.4 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Mar 38.9 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Mar 38.5 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Mar 38.7 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Mar 38.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Mar 38.2 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Mar 38.5 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Mar 38.7 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Mar after 39.0 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Mar after 38.2 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Mar after 39.3 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Mar after 35.1 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
26 Mar after 35.1 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Mar after 33.5 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
28 Mar after 35.1 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Mar after 34.9 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Mar after 36.5 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
31 Mar after 36.8 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Mar 2016
After · 28 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 · 31Every 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 14 March 2016 and 21 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 1,155 hectares (11.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Song (1,161 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.