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Umphang fire, 13 March 2017 Umphang

Out · last detection 15 Mar 2017, 18:48 UTC

The fire started on 13 March 2017 in Umphang, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,304 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 342th largest in Tak Province since 2016 (of 499 with a page). Number 153 in Thailand in 2017, of 240.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.3 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
1,304ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
13 Mar 2017 – 15 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
13 Mar
2017
Heat detections
42
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
138MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Mar 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Mar15 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

131415

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
45km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 291 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Umphang where it started
    1,313 ha reached on 13 Mar
    0.3 %

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)
8 Mar 32.9 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Mar 32.3 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Mar 32.9 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Mar 33.8 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Mar 32.4 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Mar 33.7 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Mar 34.6 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Mar 34.9 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Mar after 34.3 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Mar after 32.8 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Mar after 33.7 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
19 Mar after 33.8 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Mar after 34.1 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Mar after 33.0 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Mar after 35.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Mar after 36.2 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar after 35.3 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Mar after 34.9 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Mar 2017
After · 22 Mar 2017

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 · 42Every 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 Umphang fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 March 2017 and 15 March 2017: 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 1,304 hectares (13.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Umphang (1,313 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.