Skip to content
worldfires
TH · Thailand · →

Thoen fire, 26 March 2020 Thoen, Si Satchanalai

Out · last detection 4 Apr 2020, 18:22 UTC

The fire started on 26 March 2020 in Thoen, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,709 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 15th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 202 with a page). Number 97 in Thailand in 2020, of 666.

Burnt area
3,709ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
26 Mar 2020 – 4 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
26 Mar
2020
Heat detections
125
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
754MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Apr 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Mar4 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930311234

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
34km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.6 mm on 13 Apr.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,118 ha in 2016, 1,974 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,011 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Thoen where it started
    2,361 ha reached on 26 Mar
    1.3 %
  2. Si Satchanalai
    1,370 ha reached on 22 Mar
    0.6 %

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)
18 Mar 36.5 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Mar 35.0 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Mar 33.7 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Mar 35.1 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Mar 34.6 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Mar 34.9 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Mar 35.2 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Mar 34.4 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Mar 35.4 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Mar 35.9 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Mar 35.7 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Mar 36.2 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Mar 36.8 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Mar 36.7 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Apr 37.1 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Apr 36.9 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Apr 36.9 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Apr 37.1 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Apr after 36.3 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Apr after 36.3 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Apr after 35.8 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Apr after 35.9 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Apr after 34.2 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Apr after 35.0 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Apr after 36.2 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Apr after 36.7 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Apr after 32.4 °C 48 % 44 km/h 5.6 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Mar 2020
After · 11 Apr 2020

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 · 125Every 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 26 March 2020 and 4 April 2020: 10 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 3,709 hectares (37.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Thoen (2,361 ha, 1.3 %); Si Satchanalai (1,370 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
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.