Burned area
satellite only2,169ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 1 Mar 2023 – 12 Mar 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MM · Myanmar · –
Gangaw fire, March 2023 Gangaw, Tilin
Out · last detection 12 Mar 2023, 07:36 UTC
The fire started on 1 March 2023 in Gangaw, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,169 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 116th largest in Magway since 2016 (of 140 with a page). Number 202 in Myanmar in 2023, of 240.
Use this data
Compare with…
Suggestions: Gangaw · 2021Ywangan · 2017Tilin · 2019Gangaw · 2023
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-01matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only12days
1 Mar 2023 to 12 Mar 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 12 Mar 2023, 07:36 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only1 Mar 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 1 Mar 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
The worst day
satellite only186MW
Total radiative power on 3 March 2023; hotspots that day: 23.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 3 Mar 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model27.2FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 1 Mar 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model34.9°C · 25% RH
High of 34.9 °C and minimum humidity of 25% on 10 March 2023; gusts of 24 km/h on 12 March 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 1 Mar 2023 – 12 Mar 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 150people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 1.0 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2025).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
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.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 14 March 2023 → 12 March 2023.
-
logStart date: 24 February 2023 → 1 March 2023.
-
logLast day with fire: 12 March 2023 → 14 March 2023.
-
logStart date: 1 March 2023 → 24 February 2023.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/gangaw-2023-03?v=2026-11-01A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire gangaw-2023-03.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-03-01 | 1 | 2 | 32.1 | 14.1 | 35 | 7 | 23 | 0 | 27.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-02 | 5 | 16 | 33.4 | 15.3 | 28 | 5.8 | 20.2 | 0 | 26.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-03 | 23 | 186 | 33.1 | 14.3 | 30 | 6.8 | 22 | 0 | 27.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-04 | 8 | 37 | 32.9 | 15 | 30 | 7.7 | 23.8 | 0 | 28.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-05 | 2 | 8 | 34.2 | 15.6 | 27 | 7.9 | 21.6 | 0 | 29.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-06 | 7 | 38 | 34.8 | 16.7 | 25 | 7.3 | 18.7 | 0 | 30.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-07 | 6 | 33 | 34.6 | 16.5 | 22 | 5.8 | 19.8 | 0 | 31.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-08 | 3 | 3 | 33 | 15.4 | 33 | 5.9 | 18.7 | 0 | 29.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-09 | 3 | 3 | 34.2 | 18 | 32 | 6.4 | 22 | 0 | 30.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-10 | 7 | 47 | 34.9 | 17.6 | 25 | 7.3 | 23.8 | 0 | 31.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-11 | 0 | 0 | 33.1 | 16.4 | 30 | 7.4 | 20.9 | 0 | 31.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-12 | 2 | 18 | 33.6 | 17.2 | 29 | 7.1 | 24.5 | 0 | 31.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-03-13 | 0 | 0 | 34.1 | 16.8 | 30 | 10.1 | 23.8 | 0 | 34.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-14 | 0 | 0 | 35.2 | 16.7 | 20 | 9.4 | 24.1 | 0 | 36.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-15 | 0 | 0 | 34.5 | 18 | 24 | 7.9 | 18 | 0 | 35.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-16 | 0 | 0 | 31.5 | 16.7 | 34 | 6.6 | 21.6 | 0 | 30.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-17 | 0 | 0 | 31.6 | 17.9 | 38 | 7.1 | 28.4 | 0.2 | 28.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-18 | 0 | 0 | 29.3 | 19 | 45 | 6.4 | 22.3 | 0.1 | 24.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-19 | 0 | 0 | 27.8 | 17.8 | 50 | 7.4 | 22.3 | 0 | 22.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-20 | 0 | 0 | 31.8 | 18.1 | 33 | 10.1 | 23 | 0.5 | 27.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-21 | 0 | 0 | 32.1 | 16.6 | 31 | 7.2 | 22 | 0 | 27.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2023-03-22 | 0 | 0 | 32.3 | 17 | 32 | 8.6 | 23.8 | 0.1 | 28.7 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 2,169ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 1 Mar 2023 – 12 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 1 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 67
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 36MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
1 Mar12 Mar
12 Mar 2023
How it evolved, day by day
3 Mar
7 Mar
10 Mar
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
35°high
24km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,272 ha in 2021.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Gangaw where it started1,428 ha0.6 %
-
749 ha0.6 %
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 2025Built-up area1.0 ha
Residents≈ 150
Inside the perimeter there were about 1.0 hectares of built-up land and about 150 residents (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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 24 % of the area in Myanmar
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Mar | 32.1 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Mar | 33.4 °C | 28 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Mar | 33.1 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Mar | 32.9 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 5 Mar | 34.2 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Mar | 34.8 °C | 25 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Mar | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Mar | 33.0 °C | 33 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Mar | 34.2 °C | 32 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Mar | 34.9 °C | 25 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Mar | 33.1 °C | 30 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Mar | 33.6 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Mar after | 34.1 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 20 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Mar after | 34.5 °C | 24 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Mar after | 31.5 °C | 34 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Mar after | 31.6 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Mar after | 29.3 °C | 45 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 19 Mar after | 27.8 °C | 50 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 20 Mar after | 31.8 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Mar after | 32.1 °C | 31 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Mar after | 32.3 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 27.2, a minimum humidity of 35% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.
FWI at the start
27.2
Minimum humidity
35 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Gangaw fire, March 2023
2,169 ha
12 days
FWI 27.2
Min. humidity 35 %
Gangaw fire, February 2021
3,469 ha
11 days
FWI 24.4
Min. humidity 34 %
21 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Ywangan fire, March 2017
4,728 ha
21 days
FWI 26.1
Min. humidity 35 %
240 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 28.5 mm on 16 Apr.
Thantlang fire, April 2021
2,817 ha
15 days
FWI 30.9
Min. humidity 35 %
120 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 2 May.
Sidoktaya fire, March 2020
4,820 ha
15 days
FWI 29.4
Min. humidity 33 %
115 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Pwintbyu fire, February 2025
3,697 ha
14 days
FWI 27.8
Min. humidity 33 %
198 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 14 days
- median duration
- 3,342 ha
- median area
- 0 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 4.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 11 of 26 had it)
It stayed below its twins: 2,169 ha against a median of 3,342 ha. It lasted 12 days, against 14 days.
In 15 of 26, 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 4.8 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
24km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 12 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 11 of 26, with a median of 4.8 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 22 Feb 2023
After · 19 Mar 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 28 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 89 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 58: 3.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak89 µg/m³
Days over the guideline17 days
PM10128 µg/m³
Optical depth1.29
WHO 15
27 Feb3 Mar7 Mar11 Mar15 Mar
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 · 0Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,564 haTilinFebruary 2019 · 22 days · 26 km away
- 13,640 haGangawJanuary 2023 · 24 days · 27 km away
- 13,183 haTilinFebruary 2024 · 24 days · 28 km away
- 9,922 haTilin5 March 2025 · 16 days · 30 km away
- 17,960 haSaw28 February 2026 · 21 days · 40 km away
- 12,483 haHakha15 February 2021 · 23 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gangaw fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 March 2023 and 12 March 2023: 12 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 2,169 hectares (21.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gangaw (1,428 ha, 0.6 %); Tilin (749 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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: 26. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 3,342 ha; 0 % went past 10,000 ha. In 15 of 26, 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 4.8 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 · 4 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 14 March 2023 → 12 March 2023.
- Start date: 24 February 2023 → 1 March 2023.
- Last day with fire: 12 March 2023 → 14 March 2023.
- Start date: 1 March 2023 → 24 February 2023.
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.
Report an error
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. No 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.
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.