Sop Moei fire, 30 March 2017 สบเมย · Sop Moei, Mae Sariang
The fire started on 30 March 2017 in Sop Moei, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,094 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 141th largest in Mae Hong Son Province since 2016 (of 387 with a page). Number 36 in Thailand in 2017, of 155.
The power measured by the satellite is low (10.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 2,094ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 30 Mar 2017 – 8 Apr 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 30 Mar
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 50
- in a single hotspot: 10 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 21MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 12 Apr.
This area had burned before
47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,029 ha in 2016.
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
-
2,099 ha reached on 31 Mar1.5 %
-
Mae Sariang แม่สะเรียง7 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Mar | 37.0 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Mar | 35.1 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 28 Mar | 33.5 °C | 40 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 29 Mar | 35.1 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 30 Mar | 34.6 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 31 Mar | 35.0 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Apr | 33.2 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Apr | 32.1 °C | 50 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Apr | 34.3 °C | 40 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Apr | 34.4 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Apr | 35.1 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Apr | 35.3 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Apr | 35.9 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Apr | 36.8 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Apr after | 36.5 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Apr after | 35.9 °C | 44 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Apr after | 36.3 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Apr after | 34.8 °C | 47 % | 37 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 50Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 8,249 haMae Sariang แม่สะเรียง20 February 2021 · 20 days · 14 km away
- 8,467 haMae Sariang แม่สะเรียง20 March 2023 · 18 days · 16 km away
- 56,946 haSop Moei สบเมย21 March 2026 · 35 days · 18 km away
- 12,470 haSop Moei สบเมย20 March 2019 · 34 days · 19 km away
- 18,417 haMae Sariang แม่สะเรียง5 March 2017 · 28 days · 32 km away
- 160,413 haMae La Noi แม่ลาน้อย18 March 2026 · 41 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sop Moei fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 March 2017 to 8 April 2017 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 April 2017 to 8 April 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,094 hectares (20.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sop Moei (2,099 ha, 1.5 %); Mae Sariang (7 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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 · 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: 3 April 2017 → 30 March 2017.
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 3 April 2017 to 8 April 2017. 50 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.
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.