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TH · Thailand · –

Wihan Daeng fire, February 2020 วิหารแดง · Kaeng Khoi, Wihan Daeng, Ban Na

Out · last detection 26 Feb 2020, 18:36 UTC

The fire started on 20 February 2020 in Wihan Daeng, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,731 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

Number 196 in Thailand in 2020, of 457.

Burnt area
1,731ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
20 Feb 2020 – 26 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
20 Feb
2020
Heat detections
46
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
61MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Feb26 Feb
26 Feb 2020

How it evolved, day by day

22 Feb 2020 · 3 MW · 2 23 Feb 2020 · 149 MW · 6 24 Feb 2020 · 42 MW · 12 25 Feb 2020 · 86 MW · 21 26 Feb 2020 · 25 MW · 5
22 Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 25 Feb 26 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
45km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.3 mm on 6 Mar.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.1% of the area of London (17 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Kaeng Khoi แก่งคอย
    794 ha reached on 24 Feb
    1.0 %
  2. Wihan Daeng วิหารแดง where it started
    603 ha reached on 22 Feb
    3.2 %
  3. Ban Na บ้านนา
    345 ha reached on 23 Feb
    1.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area6.3 ha
Residents≈ 300

Inside the perimeter there were about 6.3 hectares of built-up land and about 300 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
20 Feb 34.9 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Feb 34.8 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Feb 34.5 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Feb 35.0 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Feb 36.0 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Feb 36.5 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Feb 36.4 °C 34 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Feb after 34.9 °C 37 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Feb after 34.8 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Feb after 34.4 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Mar after 35.7 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Mar after 35.0 °C 49 % 29 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
3 Mar after 35.1 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
4 Mar after 35.7 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
5 Mar after 34.8 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
6 Mar after 33.9 °C 48 % 33 km/h 4.3 mm Low 8

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 30.0, a minimum humidity of 32% and 25 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 55.

FWI at the start 30.0
Minimum humidity 32 %
Days without rain 25
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Ban Khwao fire, February 2021
1,255 ha 3 days FWI 28.1 Min. humidity 32 % 188 km away, in 2021

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.7 mm on 3 Mar.

What happened to them

8 days
median duration
1,415 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 30 of 55 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,731 ha against a median of 1,415 ha) and lasted 7 days, against 8 days.

In 25 of 55, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

4.3 mmfirst rain
6 Mar9 days after it ended
45km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 26 Feb, and on 6 Mar 4.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 30 of 55, with a median of 2.2 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Feb 2020
After · 4 Mar 2020

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 · 46Every 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 Wihan Daeng fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 February 2020 to 26 February 2020 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 February 2020 to 26 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,731 hectares (17.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kaeng Khoi (794 ha, 1.0 %); Wihan Daeng (603 ha, 3.2 %); Ban Na (345 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 55. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 1,415 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 25 of 55, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 22 February 2020 → 20 February 2020.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 February 2020 to 26 February 2020. 46 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.