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Thoen fire, 26 February 2021 Thoen, Ban Dan Lan Hoi, Ban Tak

Out · last detection 28 Feb 2021, 18:35 UTC

The fire started on 26 February 2021 in Thoen, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,082 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 175th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 202 with a page). Number 228 in Thailand in 2021, of 268.

The power measured by the satellite is low (12.9 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
1,082ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
26 Feb 2021 – 28 Feb 2021
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
26 Feb
2021
Heat detections
32
in a single hotspot: 13 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
100MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Feb 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Feb28 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

262728

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
38km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 516 ha in 2017, 378 ha in 2018, 727 ha in 2019, 16 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 970 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Thoen where it started
    951 ha reached on 25 Feb
    0.5 %
  2. Ban Dan Lan Hoi
    135 ha reached on 27 Feb
    0.1 %
  3. Ban Tak
    0 ha reached on 22 Feb
    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)
21 Feb 33.2 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Feb 34.2 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Feb 34.4 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 Feb 34.9 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Feb 35.9 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Feb 36.6 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Feb 35.9 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Feb 35.9 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Mar after 36.6 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Mar after 35.7 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Mar after 34.7 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Mar after 33.7 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
5 Mar after 36.7 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Mar after 37.4 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Mar after 37.9 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Mar after 36.4 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Mar after 36.4 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Mar after 36.2 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Feb 2021
After · 7 Mar 2021

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 · 32Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Thoen fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 February 2021 and 28 February 2021: 3 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 1,082 hectares (10.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Thoen (951 ha, 0.5 %); Ban Dan Lan Hoi (135 ha, 0.1 %); Ban Tak (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 38 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.

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.