Dawei fire, 2 April 2026 Dawei
The fire started on 2 April 2026 in Dawei, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,201 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 2th largest in Tanitharyi since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 83 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 6,201ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 2 Apr 2026 – 22 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 2 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 162
- in a single hotspot: 73 MW
- Danger at start
- 13
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 23 Apr.
This area had burned before
75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,071 ha in 2016, 44 ha in 2019, 3,022 ha in 2020, 2,287 ha in 2023, 11 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,657 ha that had burned before.
- 2,749 ha Dawei fire, March 2020 6,722 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 307 ha Suan Phueng fire, February 2016 2,414 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 238 ha Suan Phueng fire, February 2020 2,868 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 237 ha Suan Phueng fire, April 2023 1,794 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dawei where it started6,229 ha reached on 28 Mar0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Apr | 36.8 °C | 46 % | 18 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 3 Apr | 36.7 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 4 Apr | 35.6 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 5 Apr | 35.1 °C | 48 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 6 Apr | 35.5 °C | 52 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 7 Apr | 36.1 °C | 49 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 8 Apr | 36.6 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 9 Apr | 36.4 °C | 48 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 10 Apr | 36.3 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 11 Apr | 36.5 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Apr | 36.8 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Apr | 36.0 °C | 45 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Apr | 38.0 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Apr | 36.6 °C | 45 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Apr | 37.4 °C | 43 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Apr | 37.6 °C | 42 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Apr | 37.7 °C | 43 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 19 Apr | 37.0 °C | 48 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 24 |
| 20 Apr | 37.1 °C | 45 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Apr | 38.0 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 22 Apr | 37.6 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Apr after | 35.5 °C | 62 % | 27 km/h | 3.1 mm | Low 5 |
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 16 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 99 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 61: 4.1 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 · 162Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,722 haDaweiMarch 2020 · 14 days · 3 km away
- 13,861 haMueang KanchanaburiMarch 2026 · 26 days · 10 km away
- 12,427 haMueang KanchanaburiMarch 2020 · 13 days · 16 km away
- 8,169 haSuan Phueng2 April 2026 · 17 days · 16 km away
- 5,650 haMueang Kanchanaburi4 March 2019 · 12 days · 17 km away
- 9,389 haSuan Phueng2 April 2026 · 19 days · 21 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dawei fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 April 2026 and 22 April 2026: 21 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 6,201 hectares (62.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dawei (6,229 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (Burma) (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 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.