Skip to content
worldfires
TH · Thailand · →

Thoeng fire, March 2016 Thoeng

Out · last detection 21 Mar 2016, 19:20 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2016 in Thoeng, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,142 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 248th largest in Chiang Rai Province since 2016 (of 303 with a page). Number 404 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.6 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
1,142ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
15 Mar 2016 – 21 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Mar
2016
Heat detections
47
in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Energy released
152MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
35km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Thoeng where it started
    1,148 ha reached on 13 Mar
    1.4 %

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)
13 Mar 34.6 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Mar 35.1 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Mar 35.5 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
16 Mar 35.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Mar 35.3 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Mar 34.3 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Mar 34.2 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Mar 34.7 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Mar 35.4 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Mar after 34.8 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Mar after 34.9 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar after 35.2 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Mar after 30.2 °C 47 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
26 Mar after 31.5 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Mar after 30.4 °C 53 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
28 Mar after 31.2 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Mar after 31.3 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
30 Mar after 33.6 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
31 Mar after 34.0 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2016
After · 28 Mar 2016

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 · 47Every 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 Thoeng fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2016 and 21 March 2016: 7 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 1,142 hectares (11.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Thoeng (1,148 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.