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MM · Myanmar · –

Bawlake fire, 30 March 2023 Bawlake

Out · last detection 5 Apr 2023, 06:45 UTC

The fire started on 30 March 2023 in Bawlake, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,721 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 101th largest in Kayah since 2016 (of 169 with a page). Number 141 in Myanmar in 2023, of 240.

The power measured by the satellite is low (4.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Pang Mapha · 2016Mae La Noi · 2021Bawlake · 2020Mese · 2017

Burnt area
2,721ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
30 Mar 2023 – 9 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
30 Mar
2023
Heat detections
7
in a single hotspot: 4 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
4MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Mar9 Apr
5 Apr 2023

How it evolved, day by day

31 Mar 2023 · 2 MW · 2 1 Apr 2023 · 6 MW · 3 2 Apr 2023 · 4 MW · 1 5 Apr 2023 · 3 MW · 1
31 Mar 1 Apr 2 Apr 5 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

38°high
41km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 404 ha in 2016, 1,289 ha in 2017, 342 ha in 2018, 869 ha in 2019, 1,823 ha in 2020, 1,723 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,375 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.7% of the area of London (27 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. Bawlake where it started
    2,734 ha reached on 31 Mar
    1.4 %

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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
30 Mar 37.2 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
31 Mar 36.2 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Apr 36.8 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Apr 36.0 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Apr 35.3 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Apr 36.3 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Apr 37.3 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Apr 37.1 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Apr 36.7 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Apr 37.8 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Apr 38.3 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Apr after 39.0 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Apr after 38.3 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Apr after 38.5 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Apr after 38.4 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Apr after 39.3 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Apr after 39.2 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Apr after 38.4 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
17 Apr after 37.7 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Apr after 39.2 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Apr after 37.8 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 32.1, a minimum humidity of 27% and 16 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 79.

FWI at the start 32.1
Minimum humidity 27 %
Days without rain 16
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Pang Mapha fire, March 2016
6,222 ha 24 days FWI 33.0 Min. humidity 27 % 76 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.6 mm on 9 Apr.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
1,784 ha
median area
99 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 27 of 79 had it)

It was 1.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 11 days, against 9 days.

Only 22 of its 79 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 52 of 79, 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 2.4 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
41km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 9 Apr, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 27 of 79, with a median of 2.4 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 · 23 Mar 2023
After · 16 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 6 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 47: 3.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak80 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM10116 µg/m³
Optical depth1.37
28 Mar1 Apr5 Apr9 Apr
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 · 7Every 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 Myanmar

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bawlake fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 March 2023 and 9 April 2023: 11 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,721 hectares (27.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bawlake (2,734 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (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: 79. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 1,784 ha; 99 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 22 of its 79 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 52 of 79, 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 2.4 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.

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 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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 7 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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.