How long did the Song fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 April 2016 and 12 April 2016: 10 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 1,882 hectares (18.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Song (1,891 ha, 1.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

TH · Thailand · 2016-04-03 → 2016-04-12

Song fire, April 2016 Song

Out · last detection 12 Apr 2016, 06:37 UTC

The fire started on 3 April 2016 in Song, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,882 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 42th largest in Phrae Province since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 182 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area: 1,882ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 10days; 3 Apr 2016 – 12 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 3 Apr; 2016
Heat detections: 71; in a single hotspot: 199 MW
Danger at start: 37; High · FWI index
Energy released: 506MW; sum of detected power

Play back 12 Apr 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Apr12 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

34567891112

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

The weather it burned in

41°high

38km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 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

Song where it started

1,891 ha reached on 31 Mar

1.2 %

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	38.3 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
22 Mar	38.6 °C	25 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
23 Mar	37.9 °C	30 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Mar	38.9 °C	26 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Mar	34.7 °C	40 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	High 36
26 Mar	34.8 °C	36 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
27 Mar	33.2 °C	48 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	High 26
28 Mar	34.8 °C	38 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
29 Mar	34.6 °C	40 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
30 Mar	36.1 °C	36 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
31 Mar	36.4 °C	38 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
1 Apr	36.2 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
2 Apr	35.6 °C	36 %	35 km/h	1.2 mm	High 25
3 Apr	37.9 °C	26 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Apr	38.0 °C	31 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
5 Apr	39.1 °C	29 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
6 Apr	39.1 °C	29 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
7 Apr	38.4 °C	34 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
8 Apr	38.7 °C	34 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
9 Apr	39.4 °C	32 %	37 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 39
10 Apr	39.4 °C	33 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
11 Apr	41.0 °C	28 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
12 Apr	40.6 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
13 Apr after	40.3 °C	32 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
14 Apr after	40.7 °C	29 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
15 Apr after	41.2 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
16 Apr after	40.5 °C	28 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
17 Apr after	41.0 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
18 Apr after	39.5 °C	34 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
19 Apr after	39.1 °C	39 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 38
20 Apr after	39.8 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
21 Apr after	39.1 °C	35 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
22 Apr after	38.5 °C	34 %	45 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 27 Mar 2016

After · 19 Apr 2016

Before After

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 · 71Every 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

All fires in Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Song fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 April 2016 and 12 April 2016: 10 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 1,882 hectares (18.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Song (1,891 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 41.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned