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Hakha fire, 4 April 2023 Hakha, Falam

Out · last detection 16 Apr 2023, 19:08 UTC

The fire started on 4 April 2023 in Hakha, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,077 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 49th largest in Chin since 2016 (of 244 with a page). Number 37 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2023, of 212.

Burnt area
5,077ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
4 Apr 2023 – 16 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
4 Apr
2023
Heat detections
286
in a single hotspot: 112 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Apr 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Apr16 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

45678910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
45km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 22 Apr.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 407 ha in 2017, 1,241 ha in 2020, 92 ha in 2021, 778 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,112 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Hakha where it started
    5,069 ha reached on 4 Apr
    1.2 %
  2. Falam
    44 ha reached on 12 Apr
    0.0 %

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)
4 Apr 26.6 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
5 Apr 27.9 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Apr 29.7 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
7 Apr 31.0 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Apr 31.4 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
9 Apr 31.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Apr 32.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Apr 32.6 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Apr 32.3 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Apr 32.3 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Apr 33.4 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Apr 33.4 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Apr 32.5 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Apr after 33.8 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm High 33
18 Apr after 33.8 °C 25 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Apr after 32.8 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
20 Apr after 32.6 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
21 Apr after 30.8 °C 32 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
22 Apr after 30.6 °C 27 % 38 km/h 1.2 mm High 23

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Mar 2023
After · 23 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.

Detections table · 286Every 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 4 April 2023 and 16 April 2023: 13 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 5,077 hectares (50.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hakha (5,069 ha, 1.2 %); Falam (44 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.