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Hakha fire, February 2023 Hakha

Out · last detection 25 Feb 2023, 19:45 UTC

The fire started on 17 February 2023 in Hakha, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,485 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 37th largest in Chin since 2016 (of 244 with a page). Number 21 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2023, of 212.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
6,485ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
17 Feb 2023 – 24 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
17 Feb
2023
Heat detections
301
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
668MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Feb 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Feb24 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232425

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high
31km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 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: 2,305 ha in 2016, 2,760 ha in 2017, 56 ha in 2018, 2,113 ha in 2020, 3,060 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,617 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Hakha where it started
    6,505 ha reached on 10 Feb
    1.5 %

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)
17 Feb 30.2 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Feb 31.0 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Feb 29.6 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
20 Feb 29.7 °C 45 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Feb 30.2 °C 47 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
22 Feb 32.8 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Feb 33.8 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Feb 31.3 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
25 Feb after 29.7 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
26 Feb after 31.3 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Feb after 32.2 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
28 Feb after 31.7 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Mar after 31.5 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
2 Mar after 32.5 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Mar after 32.3 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
4 Mar after 32.5 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Mar after 33.5 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
6 Mar after 34.2 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 10 Feb 2023
After · 3 Mar 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.

Detections table · 301Every 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 (Burma) ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Hakha fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 February 2023 and 24 February 2023: 8 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 6,485 hectares (64.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Hakha (6,505 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.

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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.