Viengthong fire, 27 March 2026 Viengthong
The fire started on 27 March 2026 in Viengthong, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,653 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 9th largest in Bolikhamsai since 2016 (of 39 with a page). Number 59 in Laos in 2026, of 287.
- Burnt area
- 6,653ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 27 Mar 2026 – 17 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 228
- in a single hotspot: 239 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.8 mm on 18 Apr.
This area had burned before
34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 739 ha in 2019, 565 ha in 2022, 341 ha in 2023, 1,191 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,279 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Viengthong where it started6,686 ha reached on 27 Mar1.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Mar | 31.0 °C | 48 % | 45 km/h | 0.6 mm | Low 9 |
| 28 Mar | 31.2 °C | 50 % | 37 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 4 |
| 29 Mar | 30.5 °C | 47 % | 52 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 10 |
| 30 Mar | 28.1 °C | 58 % | 63 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 10 |
| 31 Mar | 29.8 °C | 50 % | 51 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 11 |
| 1 Apr | 28.8 °C | 65 % | 37 km/h | 2.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 2 Apr | 29.9 °C | 52 % | 48 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 8 |
| 3 Apr | 30.8 °C | 49 % | 52 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 4 Apr | 30.5 °C | 49 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 5 Apr | 30.0 °C | 50 % | 57 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 6 Apr | 32.2 °C | 44 % | 56 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 7 Apr | 32.0 °C | 41 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 8 Apr | 32.6 °C | 37 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 Apr | 32.8 °C | 36 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Apr | 32.7 °C | 32 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 11 Apr | 32.4 °C | 34 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Apr | 32.3 °C | 41 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Apr | 32.0 °C | 43 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Apr | 32.3 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Apr | 32.4 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Apr | 33.1 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Apr | 31.8 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Apr after | 27.8 °C | 68 % | 25 km/h | 6.8 mm | Very low 1 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 14 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 230 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 131: 8.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 228Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Viengthong fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 March 2026 to 17 April 2026 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 April 2026 to 17 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,653 hectares (66.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Viengthong (6,686 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Laos (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.
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
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.