Chawngte fire, 10 March 2026 Chawngte, Lawngtlai, S' Bungtlang
The fire started on 10 March 2026 in Chawngte, India, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,132 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 16th largest in Mizoram since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 29 in India in 2026, of 65.
- Burnt area
- 8,132ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 10 Mar 2026 – 18 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 10 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 123
- in a single hotspot: 69 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 28 Mar.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,389 ha in 2016, 2,732 ha in 2017, 4,020 ha in 2018, 5,019 ha in 2019, 4,952 ha in 2020, 4,286 ha in 2021, 4,321 ha in 2022, 4,213 ha in 2023, 822 ha in 2024, 4,906 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,035 ha that had burned before.
- 4,124 ha Chawngte fire, March 2022 6,548 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,490 ha Chawngte fire, March 2019 10,625 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,161 ha Chawngte fire, March 2020 5,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 210 ha S' Bungtlang fire, March 2025 12,406 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chawngte where it started5,577 ha reached on 14 Mar8.7 %
-
1,835 ha reached on 14 Mar2.0 %
-
767 ha reached on 14 Mar1.4 %
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 Mar | 34.1 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Mar | 33.5 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 2.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 12 Mar | 32.6 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 13 Mar | 31.3 °C | 41 % | 42 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 14 Mar | 31.3 °C | 48 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 15 Mar | 32.8 °C | 43 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Mar | 32.3 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Mar | 32.9 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 26 |
| 18 Mar | 34.1 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Mar after | 34.9 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Mar after | 32.3 °C | 47 % | 32 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 21 Mar after | 29.2 °C | 43 % | 26 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 22 Mar after | 31.0 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 24 |
| 23 Mar after | 31.6 °C | 32 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Mar after | 33.3 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Mar after | 33.9 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 26 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Mar after | 31.6 °C | 43 % | 31 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 13 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 12 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 164 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 113: 7.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 123Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,625 haChawngte22 March 2019 · 10 days · 5 km away
- 12,406 haS' BungtlangMarch 2025 · 9 days · 12 km away
- 8,339 haChawngte27 March 2026 · 11 days · 17 km away
- 9,905 haChawngte28 March 2020 · 7 days · 19 km away
- 10,975 haChawngte28 March 2026 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 24,940 haChawngte16 March 2019 · 16 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chawngte fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 March 2026 and 18 March 2026: 9 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 8,132 hectares (81.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Chawngte (5,577 ha, 8.7 %); Lawngtlai (1,835 ha, 2.0 %); S' Bungtlang (767 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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.
Emergency number: 112
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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.