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Xanakharm fire, 14 March 2023 Xanakharm, Mad, Parklai

Out · last detection 21 Apr 2023, 06:44 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2023 in Xanakharm, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 34,889 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Vientiane since 2016 (of 87 with a page). Number 3 in Laos in 2023, of 239.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Xanakharm · 2020Xanakharm · 2019Xanakharm · 2016Xanakharm · 2016

Burnt area
34,889ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
14 Mar 2023 – 21 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
14 Mar
2023
Heat detections
2,123
in a single hotspot: 749 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Average daily power
452MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar21 Apr
21 Apr 2023

How it evolved, day by day

14 Mar 2023 · 58 MW · 2 15 Mar 2023 · 98 MW · 11 16 Mar 2023 · 12 MW · 3 17 Mar 2023 · 75 MW · 8 18 Mar 2023 · 482 MW · 20 19 Mar 2023 · 16 MW · 3 20 Mar 2023 · 4 MW · 1 21 Mar 2023 · 17 MW · 10 22 Mar 2023 · 172 MW · 47 23 Mar 2023 · 253 MW · 36 24 Mar 2023 · 1,263 MW · 106 25 Mar 2023 · 1,856 MW · 251 26 Mar 2023 · 2,353 MW · 334 27 Mar 2023 · 1,040 MW · 188 28 Mar 2023 · 128 MW · 34 29 Mar 2023 · 48 MW · 8 30 Mar 2023 · 188 MW · 11 31 Mar 2023 · 159 MW · 32 1 Apr 2023 · 1,250 MW · 65 2 Apr 2023 · 177 MW · 39 3 Apr 2023 · 1,146 MW · 112 4 Apr 2023 · 1,354 MW · 169 5 Apr 2023 · 2,068 MW · 183 6 Apr 2023 · 954 MW · 140 7 Apr 2023 · 499 MW · 82 8 Apr 2023 · 55 MW · 10 9 Apr 2023 · 565 MW · 25 10 Apr 2023 · 253 MW · 32 11 Apr 2023 · 242 MW · 43 12 Apr 2023 · 174 MW · 24 13 Apr 2023 · 45 MW · 9 14 Apr 2023 · 49 MW · 13 15 Apr 2023 · 138 MW · 16 16 Apr 2023 · 104 MW · 14 17 Apr 2023 · 46 MW · 9 18 Apr 2023 · 156 MW · 10 19 Apr 2023 · 57 MW · 7 20 Apr 2023 · 25 MW · 5 21 Apr 2023 · 53 MW · 11
14 Mar 20 Mar 26 Mar 1 Apr 7 Apr 13 Apr 19 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
43km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 23 Apr.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,139 ha in 2016, 820 ha in 2017, 740 ha in 2018, 7,119 ha in 2019, 6,023 ha in 2020, 75 ha in 2021, 62 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,594 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 22% of the area of London (349 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. Xanakharm where it started
    33,372 ha reached on 14 Mar
    18 %
  2. Mad
    1,731 ha reached on 23 Mar
    1.1 %
  3. Parklai
    0 ha reached on 18 Mar
    0.0 %

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 2025
Built-up area0.24 ha
Residents≈ 350

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.24 hectares of built-up land and about 350 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
14 Mar 31.4 °C 34 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
15 Mar 34.2 °C 31 % 18 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
16 Mar 32.6 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
17 Mar 35.0 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
18 Mar 35.7 °C 36 % 22 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 16
19 Mar 35.9 °C 33 % 27 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 19
20 Mar 37.4 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Mar 37.6 °C 27 % 41 km/h 1.4 mm High 29
22 Mar 38.3 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
23 Mar 38.4 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Mar 38.9 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Mar 38.5 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Mar 37.4 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Mar 36.7 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Mar 35.0 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Mar 34.3 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
30 Mar 35.0 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
31 Mar 36.3 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Apr 36.5 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Apr 38.1 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Apr 38.2 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Apr 37.9 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Apr 38.1 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Apr 38.0 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Apr 37.5 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Apr 34.8 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Apr 35.1 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
10 Apr 38.6 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Apr 39.6 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Apr 39.8 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Apr 38.4 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Apr 40.3 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Apr 40.2 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Apr 35.5 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
17 Apr 39.0 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Apr 40.4 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Apr 39.7 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Apr 39.0 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.7 mm High 32
21 Apr 38.1 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Apr after 38.7 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
23 Apr after 38.2 °C 28 % 28 km/h 1.3 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Mar 2023
After · 28 Apr 2023

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 · Copernicus

On 7 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 454 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 223: 15 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak454 µg/m³
Days over the guideline44 days
PM10648 µg/m³
Optical depth3.07
1213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 2,123Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Xanakharm fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 March 2023 to 21 April 2023 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 March 2023 to 17 April 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 34,889 hectares (348.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Xanakharm (33,372 ha, 18 %); Mad (1,731 ha, 1.1 %); Parklai (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.4 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 March 2023 to 17 April 2023. 2,123 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 2025, 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.