Vilabuly fire, 8 March 2020 Vilabuly
The fire started on 8 March 2020 in Vilabuly, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,952 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 19th largest in Savannakhet since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 40 in Laos in 2020, of 169.
- Burnt area
- 4,952ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 8 Mar 2020 – 18 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 154
- in a single hotspot: 93 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.4GW
- 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: 6.7 mm on 19 Mar.
This area had burned before
50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 242 ha in 2016, 422 ha in 2017, 233 ha in 2018, 2,219 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,491 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Vilabuly where it started4,978 ha reached on 8 Mar2.8 %
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 | 37.3 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Mar | 38.3 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Mar | 35.2 °C | 33 % | 57 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Mar | 33.6 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 12 Mar | 36.2 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 13 Mar | 38.4 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Mar | 35.1 °C | 43 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Mar | 31.7 °C | 49 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Mar | 34.3 °C | 43 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Mar | 35.3 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 18 Mar | 34.9 °C | 41 % | 26 km/h | 4.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 19 Mar after | 31.6 °C | 54 % | 33 km/h | 6.7 mm | Very low 3 |
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.
Detections table · 154Every 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 Vilabuly fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 March 2020 to 18 March 2020 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 March 2020 to 15 March 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,952 hectares (49.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Vilabuly (4,978 ha, 2.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very 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.