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Xay fire, 3 April 2016 Xay, Namor

Out · last detection 28 Apr 2016, 06:37 UTC

The fire started on 3 April 2016 in Xay, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,891 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). The largest in Laos in 2016, of 143.

Burnt area
23,891ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
3 Apr 2016 – 28 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
3 Apr
2016
Heat detections
1,445
in a single hotspot: 416 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
54.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Apr28 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

3456781011121314151617182021222324262728

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
54km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 30 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Xay where it started
    18,043 ha reached on 3 Apr
    8.4 %
  2. Namor
    5,955 ha reached on 3 Apr
    3.4 %

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)
10 Apr 34.7 °C 31 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Apr 36.7 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Apr 36.1 °C 25 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Apr 34.8 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Apr 36.2 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
15 Apr 36.2 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Apr 35.8 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Apr 35.1 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Apr 34.4 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Apr 33.3 °C 48 % 50 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 16
20 Apr 35.2 °C 36 % 49 km/h 1.4 mm High 24
21 Apr 35.4 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Apr 34.8 °C 29 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Apr 33.4 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.6 mm High 32
24 Apr 34.3 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Apr 33.0 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
26 Apr 35.0 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Apr 37.5 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Apr 37.7 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
29 Apr after 35.1 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
30 Apr after 30.4 °C 57 % 40 km/h 3.8 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Mar 2016
After · 5 May 2016

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 · 1,445Every 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 Xay fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 April 2016 to 28 April 2016 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 April 2016 to 21 April 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 23,891 hectares (238.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Xay (18,043 ha, 8.4 %); Namor (5,955 ha, 3.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 54 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

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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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.