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Thoen fire, 11 March 2017 Thoen, Mae Phrik, Li

Out · last detection 18 Mar 2017, 07:01 UTC

The fire started on 11 March 2017 in Thoen, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,926 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 58th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 202 with a page). Number 72 in Thailand in 2017, of 240.

The power measured by the satellite is low (7.1 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
1,926ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
11 Mar 2017 – 18 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
11 Mar
2017
Heat detections
50
in a single hotspot: 7 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
150MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Mar18 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718

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
41km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Thoen where it started
    1,193 ha reached on 11 Mar
    0.7 %
  2. Mae Phrik
    724 ha reached on 14 Mar
    1.1 %
  3. Li
    20 ha reached on 13 Mar
    0.0 %

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)
11 Mar 37.5 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Mar 38.0 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Mar 38.2 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Mar 37.7 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Mar 38.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Mar 38.4 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
17 Mar 36.7 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Mar 37.4 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Mar after 37.4 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Mar after 37.7 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Mar after 36.8 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Mar after 37.5 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Mar after 38.3 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Mar after 39.4 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Mar after 38.4 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Mar after 38.5 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Mar after 33.5 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
28 Mar after 35.9 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Mar 2017
After · 25 Mar 2017

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.
⬇ 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 Thoen fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 March 2017 and 18 March 2017: 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 1,926 hectares (19.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Thoen (1,193 ha, 0.7 %); Mae Phrik (724 ha, 1.1 %); Li (20 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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

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
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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.