Ta Phraya fire, 4 January 2026 Thailand
The fire started on 4 January 2026 in Ta Phraya, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,890 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
Number 146 in Thailand in 2026, of 880.
- Burnt area
- 4,890ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 4 Jan 2026 – 16 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 0
- districts
- Started on
- 4 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 105
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 723MW
- sum of detected power
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 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 239 ha in 2016, 1,774 ha in 2017, 887 ha in 2018, 401 ha in 2019, 548 ha in 2020, 396 ha in 2021, 3 ha in 2023, 200 ha in 2024, 473 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,201 ha that had burned before.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan | 32.4 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 2 Jan | 31.5 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Jan | 30.4 °C | 42 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 4 Jan | 30.4 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 5 Jan | 31.7 °C | 40 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 6 Jan | 30.7 °C | 44 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Jan | 28.8 °C | 44 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Jan | 27.4 °C | 39 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 9 Jan | 27.3 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Jan | 28.1 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Jan | 28.7 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 12 Jan | 29.9 °C | 39 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Jan | 31.3 °C | 37 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 14 Jan | 32.6 °C | 39 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 15 Jan | 33.8 °C | 36 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 16 Jan | 33.6 °C | 38 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 17 Jan after | 33.6 °C | 42 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 18 Jan after | 34.4 °C | 39 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 19 Jan after | 33.7 °C | 39 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 21 Jan after | 32.7 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Jan after | 31.7 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Jan after | 30.9 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Jan after | 30.9 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Jan after | 31.9 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Jan after | 32.4 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 19 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 70 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 105Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ta Phraya fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 January 2026 and 16 January 2026: 13 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 4,890 hectares (48.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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
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.