Hakha fire, February 2024 Hakha, Matupi
The fire started on 29 February 2024 in Hakha, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,347 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 38th largest in Chin since 2016 (of 244 with a page). Number 24 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2024, of 161.
The power measured by the satellite is low (18.2 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
- 6,347ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 29 Feb 2024 – 14 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 29 Feb
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 349
- in a single hotspot: 18 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 867MW
- 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 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 21 Mar.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,499 ha in 2016, 2,707 ha in 2017, 57 ha in 2018, 949 ha in 2019, 3,079 ha in 2020, 3,819 ha in 2021, 3,252 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,878 ha that had burned before.
- 3,519 ha Hakha fire, February 2021 12,588 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,550 ha Hakha fire, February 2023 6,485 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,098 ha Hakha fire, March 2016 4,634 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,829 ha Hakha fire, February 2017 3,179 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 824 ha Hakha fire, March 2017 2,766 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 57 ha Hakha fire, March 2018 4,589 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 46 ha Gangaw fire, February 2017 7,940 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hakha where it started6,144 ha reached on 28 Feb1.4 %
-
223 ha reached on 10 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Feb | 32.0 °C | 32 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 1 Mar | 30.6 °C | 42 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 2 Mar | 31.0 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 3 Mar | 32.7 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 4 Mar | 32.4 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 5 Mar | 33.9 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Mar | 33.1 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Mar | 33.4 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Mar | 34.4 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Mar | 33.2 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Mar | 32.6 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 11 Mar | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Mar | 34.7 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 13 Mar | 34.8 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Mar | 33.9 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Mar after | 33.3 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Mar after | 33.5 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Mar after | 33.7 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Mar after | 33.4 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Mar after | 32.5 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Mar after | 33.1 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Mar after | 27.7 °C | 53 % | 31 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 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 · 349Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,588 haHakha22 February 2021 · 12 days · 4 km away
- 11,026 haHakha21 February 2026 · 11 days · 6 km away
- 12,329 haHakha7 April 2023 · 15 days · 15 km away
- 13,643 haGangawJanuary 2023 · 15 days · 16 km away
- 9,334 haHakha5 February 2026 · 20 days · 16 km away
- 13,183 haMatupiFebruary 2024 · 16 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Hakha fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 February 2024 and 14 March 2024: 15 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 6,347 hectares (63.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hakha (6,144 ha, 1.4 %); Matupi (223 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 33 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 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.