Xay fire, 5 April 2018 Xay, Namor
The fire started on 5 April 2018 in Xay, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,315 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 2 in Laos in 2018, of 87.
- Burnt area
- 31,315ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 5 Apr 2018 – 14 Apr 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Apr
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 899
- in a single hotspot: 420 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 19.4GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 13.5 mm on 15 Apr.
This area had burned before
73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 20,210 ha in 2016, 12,071 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 22,800 ha that had burned before.
- 12,586 ha Xay fire, April 2016 23,891 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,605 ha Namor fire, April 2017 29,869 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,873 ha Xay fire, April 2017 3,920 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,714 ha Xay fire, April 2016 4,640 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,399 ha Xay fire, April 2017 2,837 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 414 ha Beng fire, April 2017 3,623 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 81 ha Namor fire, April 2016 3,762 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Xay where it started25,982 ha reached on 5 Apr12 %
-
5,473 ha reached on 10 Apr3.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Apr | 31.3 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 6 Apr | 27.3 °C | 52 % | 43 km/h | 9.1 mm | Very low 3 |
| 7 Apr | 18.9 °C | 51 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 8 Apr | 25.4 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 9 Apr | 29.9 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 10 Apr | 31.7 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 11 Apr | 31.9 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Apr | 33.2 °C | 28 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Apr | 34.3 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 14 Apr | 32.9 °C | 28 % | 43 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 23 |
| 15 Apr after | 31.9 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 13.5 mm | Very low 2 |
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 · 899Every 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 Xay fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 April 2018 to 14 April 2018 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 April 2018 to 14 April 2018.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 31,315 hectares (313.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Xay (25,982 ha, 12 %); Namor (5,473 ha, 3.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.