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MM · 2018 yearbook

Wildfires in Myanmar in 2018

55 fires larger than 2,000 hectares in Myanmar in 2018, with 196,009 hectares burned according to their perimeters. Here is the whole year: what the official record says, when and where it burned and what the weather was like.

Only fires of 2,000 ha or more get an entry: smaller ones are not in the lists or the entry totals, but they are in the GWIS yearly series.

The year in a few sentences

  1. According to Copernicus GWIS, 3,703,889 hectares burned in Myanmar in 2018: 54% of the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (6,888,908 ha).

    Copernicus GWIS · See the data

  2. The worst week was 19 March to 25 March: 880,677 hectares burned in seven days, 24% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS.

    Copernicus GWIS · See the data

  3. The largest fire was the Lashio fire, which started on 13 March 2018 and burned 22,027 hectares: 11% of the area of the year's 55 fires with a page.

    WorldFires · See the data · Open the fire page

  4. The day of highest danger at a fire this year was 10 March 2018: a Fire Weather Index of 57 (extreme on the EFFIS scale) at the Minhla fire, calculated by WorldFires from ERA5.

    WorldFires · ERA5 · See the data · Open the fire page

Official burned area
3.7 M ha
Copernicus GWIS · ×0.5 the average
Fires with a page
55
196,009 ha within their perimeters
Largest fire
22k ha
Lashio · 13 Mar
Highest FWI
57 Extreme
10 Mar · Minhla

Map of the year

Copernicus GWIS
One circle per fire, sized by its area. Tap one to open its page.

Month by month

Hectares within the perimeters by the month the fire started. Tap a month to see it on the map.

Week by week, against other years

Copernicus GWIS

Cumulative burned area in 2018 over the lowest and highest of each week in the record since 2012, and its average. The bars below show what burned each week. Tap the chart to see a week. The average and the band are the Copernicus GWIS climatology for 2012–2025, which includes 2018 itself.

0 2.7 M 5.5 M 8.2 M Worst week · 881k ha Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
2018 average 2012–2025 lowest and highest Hectares each week

Every year since 2012

Copernicus GWIS

Hectares burned per year in the official record. Tap a year to open its yearbook.

2018: 3,703,889 ha Average of the other years: 6,888,908 ha

Cite this

Markdown version

Copy the sentences with their source and link. WorldFires data are CC BY 4.0: credit WorldFires and the original source.

- According to Copernicus GWIS, 3,703,889 hectares burned in Myanmar in 2018: 54% of the average of the other years from 2012 to 2024 (6,888,908 ha).
- The worst week was 19 March to 25 March: 880,677 hectares burned in seven days, 24% of the year according to Copernicus GWIS.
- The largest fire was the Lashio fire, which started on 13 March 2018 and burned 22,027 hectares: 11% of the area of the year's 55 fires with a page.
- The day of highest danger at a fire this year was 10 March 2018: a Fire Weather Index of 57 (extreme on the EFFIS scale) at the Minhla fire, calculated by WorldFires from ERA5.

WorldFires, “Wildfires in Myanmar in 2018”, https://worldfires.org/en/country/myanmar-burma/2018 (accessed 15 November 2026). Sources: Copernicus GWIS, WorldFires, WorldFires · ERA5.

Fires of 2018, largest first · 55

Burned area in 2018 (Copernicus Land, Sentinel-3)

According to Copernicus Land, 349,021 ha burned in 2018 (Jul–Dec). The year is not complete, so it is not compared with the others.

The area the Sentinel-3 satellite sees burned each month, separate from the fire pages. It is the same source and the same method every year, so years can be compared with each other. It counts everything that burns, including crop and pasture burning, which is why it does not match the fire pages or the official statistics.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Where most burned in 2018

  1. Bago 122,731 ha
  2. Yangon 67,565 ha
  3. Ayeyarwady 45,007 ha
  4. Magway 38,004 ha
  5. Saigang 35,069 ha
  6. Mandalay 26,050 ha
  7. Mon 5,272 ha
  8. Shan 4,256 ha
  9. Kachin 2,975 ha
  10. Chin 1,917 ha

The whole series since 2018

Source: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, “Burnt Area 2018-present (raster 300 m), global, monthly – version 4”, monthly Sentinel-3 product, DOI 10.2909/8fa58061-28ab-49bb-9b77-c26b50733e34. Generated using European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information; worldfires.org adds up, by country and region, the true area of the 300 m cells where a burn was detected. Latest month published: May 2026. Product page · Methodology

Sources and limits

Fire-page areas are satellite-measured perimeters and may differ from official statistics. The yearly and weekly record is the Copernicus GWIS estimate. The FWI is our own calculation from ERA5 at each fire's location: it is not an official danger warning.

Perimeters: Copernicus EFFIS and GWIS (and MTBS, NIFC or NBAC in North America). Hotspots: NASA FIRMS (VIIRS). Weather: Copernicus ERA5 via Open-Meteo. How it is calculated