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Thoen fire, 15 March 2018 Thoen, Thung Saliam

Out · last detection 20 Mar 2018, 19:50 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2018 in Thoen, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,738 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 31th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 202 with a page). Number 29 in Thailand in 2018, of 144.

The power measured by the satellite is low (8.0 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
2,738ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
15 Mar 2018 – 19 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Mar
2018
Heat detections
88
in a single hotspot: 8 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
213MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar19 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
29km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 522 ha in 2016, 79 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Thoen where it started
    2,646 ha reached on 15 Mar
    1.5 %
  2. Thung Saliam
    105 ha reached on 18 Mar
    0.2 %

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)
15 Mar 34.5 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Mar 33.9 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Mar 34.8 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
18 Mar 36.1 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
19 Mar 37.2 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Mar after 36.7 °C 33 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Mar after 34.2 °C 52 % 32 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 15
22 Mar after 33.2 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
23 Mar after 32.6 °C 48 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
24 Mar after 34.2 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Mar after 34.5 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
26 Mar after 35.1 °C 45 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
27 Mar after 32.7 °C 51 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
28 Mar after 36.1 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Mar after 36.0 °C 39 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2018
After · 26 Mar 2018

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 · 88Every 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 15 March 2018 and 19 March 2018: 5 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 2,738 hectares (27.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Thoen (2,646 ha, 1.5 %); Thung Saliam (105 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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
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.

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.