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TH · Thailand · –

Sop Moei fire, 14 March 2025 สบเมย · Sop Moei, Mae Sariang

Out · last detection 4 Apr 2025, 19:26 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2025 in Sop Moei, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,380 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 23th largest in Mae Hong Son Province since 2016 (of 361 with a page). Number 8 in Thailand in 2025, of 173.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.1 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
5,380ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
14 Mar 2025 – 4 Apr 2025
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Mar
2025
Heat detections
215
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
26MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar4 Apr
4 Apr 2025

How it evolved, day by day

14 Mar 2025 · 6 MW · 3 15 Mar 2025 · 11 MW · 5 17 Mar 2025 · 7 MW · 6 18 Mar 2025 · 4 MW · 2 19 Mar 2025 · 6 MW · 1 20 Mar 2025 · 29 MW · 21 21 Mar 2025 · 25 MW · 17 22 Mar 2025 · 5 MW · 6 23 Mar 2025 · 37 MW · 14 24 Mar 2025 · 51 MW · 16 25 Mar 2025 · 56 MW · 22 26 Mar 2025 · 13 MW · 9 27 Mar 2025 · 9 MW · 4 29 Mar 2025 · 62 MW · 15 30 Mar 2025 · 34 MW · 19 31 Mar 2025 · 69 MW · 32 1 Apr 2025 · 47 MW · 15 2 Apr 2025 · 38 MW · 5 3 Apr 2025 · 18 MW · 2 4 Apr 2025 · 2 MW · 1
14 Mar 19 Mar 23 Mar 27 Mar 31 Mar

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
37km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 10 Apr.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,626 ha in 2016, 1,900 ha in 2017, 1,193 ha in 2018, 4,154 ha in 2019, 1,654 ha in 2020, 778 ha in 2021, 403 ha in 2022, 1,684 ha in 2023, 2,794 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,393 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.4% of the area of London (54 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Sop Moei สบเมย where it started
    4,623 ha reached on 17 Mar
    3.2 %
  2. Mae Sariang แม่สะเรียง
    914 ha reached on 14 Mar
    0.4 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area1.8 ha
Residents≈ 250

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.8 hectares of built-up land and about 250 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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 35.9 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Mar 36.5 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Mar 35.9 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
17 Mar 37.0 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Mar 36.1 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Mar 33.2 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
20 Mar 34.2 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Mar 33.8 °C 45 % 21 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
22 Mar 35.5 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Mar 34.6 °C 48 % 25 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
24 Mar 36.3 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
25 Mar 36.3 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Mar 35.7 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Mar 35.4 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Mar 34.2 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Mar 36.5 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Mar 37.8 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Mar 34.9 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
1 Apr 34.6 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.5 mm High 30
2 Apr 35.7 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
3 Apr 35.1 °C 48 % 22 km/h 3.7 mm High 25
4 Apr 34.7 °C 53 % 30 km/h 1.5 mm Low 9
5 Apr after 32.2 °C 57 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Low 8
6 Apr after 31.3 °C 60 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Apr after 33.2 °C 51 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
8 Apr after 35.8 °C 43 % 20 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
9 Apr after 34.4 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.7 mm High 23
10 Apr after 33.4 °C 53 % 39 km/h 2.1 mm High 25

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 24.1, a minimum humidity of 33% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 51.

FWI at the start 24.1
Minimum humidity 33 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Li fire, February 2023
1,264 ha 14 days FWI 24.9 Min. humidity 33 % 103 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 10.5 mm on 13 Mar.

What happened to them

12 days
median duration
1,945 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 23 of 51 had it)

It was 2.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 22 days, against 12 days.

Only 2 of its 51 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 28 of 51, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.6 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

2.1 mmfirst rain
10 Apr6 days after it ended
37km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 4 Apr, and on 10 Apr 2.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 23 of 51, with a median of 4.6 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Mar 2025
After · 11 Apr 2025

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 29 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 162 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 91: 6.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak162 µg/m³
Days over the guideline23 days
PM10175 µg/m³
Optical depth1.82
15 Mar20 Mar25 Mar30 Mar4 Apr
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 215Every 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 Sop Moei fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 March 2025 to 4 April 2025 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 March 2025 to 3 April 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,380 hectares (53.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sop Moei (4,623 ha, 3.2 %); Mae Sariang (914 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 37 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 51. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 1,945 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 2 of its 51 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 28 of 51, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.6 mm.

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 · 3 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 5,505 → 5,380 ha.
  2. Last day with fire: 3 April 2025 → 4 April 2025.
  3. Start date: 17 March 2025 → 14 March 2025.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 March 2025 to 3 April 2025. 215 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.