Umphang fire, 3 April 2016 อุ้มผาง · Thailand
The fire started on 3 April 2016 in Umphang, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,591 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 193th largest in Tak Province since 2016 (of 454 with a page). Number 191 in Thailand in 2016, of 487.
Compare with…
We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 1,591ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 3 Apr 2016 – 11 Apr 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 0
- districts
- Started on
- 3 Apr
- 2016
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Bangkok boundary: geoBoundaries · OpenStreetMap, Wambacher · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Apr | 33.9 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Apr | 34.0 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Apr | 33.1 °C | 47 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Apr | 34.5 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Apr | 34.2 °C | 49 % | 27 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 8 Apr | 34.5 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 9 Apr | 33.9 °C | 43 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Apr | 35.1 °C | 43 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Apr | 35.5 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 24 |
| 12 Apr after | 34.8 °C | 43 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 13 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 46 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Apr after | 34.6 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Apr after | 35.1 °C | 45 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Apr after | 37.4 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 18 Apr after | 36.6 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Apr after | 37.5 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Apr after | 36.4 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 21 Apr after | 34.7 °C | 45 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Umphang fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 April 2016 and 11 April 2016: 9 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 1,591 hectares (15.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.