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Umphang fire, 10 March 2016 Umphang

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

The fire started on 10 March 2016 in Umphang, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,302 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 75th largest in Tak Province since 2016 (of 499 with a page). Number 70 in Thailand in 2016, of 527.

Burnt area
3,302ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
10 Mar 2016 – 20 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 Mar
2016
Heat detections
146
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Mar20 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1011121415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
39km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 29.5 mm on 27 Mar.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Umphang where it started
    3,320 ha reached on 10 Mar
    0.7 %

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)
4 Mar 30.2 °C 37 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
5 Mar 31.1 °C 41 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
6 Mar 30.5 °C 46 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Mar 31.5 °C 40 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
8 Mar 32.1 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Mar 33.5 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
10 Mar 33.3 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Mar 32.8 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
12 Mar 32.9 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Mar 32.1 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Mar 33.8 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Mar 33.8 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Mar 32.5 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Mar 34.5 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Mar 35.1 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Mar 34.1 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Mar 34.4 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Mar after 33.8 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Mar after 33.3 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Mar after 32.4 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Mar after 34.9 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Mar after 31.1 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 18
26 Mar after 32.2 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
27 Mar after 27.9 °C 64 % 32 km/h 29.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Mar 2016
After · 27 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 · 146Every 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 Umphang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 March 2016 and 20 March 2016: 11 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 3,302 hectares (33.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Umphang (3,320 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.