Skip to content
worldfires
MM · Myanmar · –

Hopong fire, March 2022 Hopong

Out · last detection 19 Mar 2022, 06:06 UTC

The fire started on 3 March 2022 in Hopong, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,153 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 543th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 625 with a page). Number 64 in Myanmar in 2022, of 77.

Burnt area
2,153ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
3 Mar 2022 – 19 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
3 Mar
2022
Heat detections
109
in a single hotspot: 245 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
181MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Mar19 Mar
19 Mar 2022

How it evolved, day by day

3 Mar 2022 · 12 MW · 1 4 Mar 2022 · 14 MW · 3 5 Mar 2022 · 20 MW · 3 7 Mar 2022 · 19 MW · 3 8 Mar 2022 · 27 MW · 3 9 Mar 2022 · 9 MW · 2 10 Mar 2022 · 156 MW · 9 11 Mar 2022 · 19 MW · 3 12 Mar 2022 · 82 MW · 9 13 Mar 2022 · 11 MW · 2 14 Mar 2022 · 1 MW · 1 15 Mar 2022 · 64 MW · 14 16 Mar 2022 · 2,233 MW · 32 17 Mar 2022 · 70 MW · 12 18 Mar 2022 · 82 MW · 8 19 Mar 2022 · 84 MW · 4
3 Mar 8 Mar 12 Mar 16 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

36°high
32km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.3 mm on 22 Mar.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 46 ha in 2017, 447 ha in 2018, 745 ha in 2019, 2,047 ha in 2020, 1,164 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,001 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.4% of the area of London (22 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Hopong where it started
    2,169 ha reached on 3 Mar
    0.7 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
3 Mar 32.5 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
4 Mar 32.5 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Mar 32.5 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Mar 30.0 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Mar 32.4 °C 37 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Mar 33.7 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
9 Mar 33.8 °C 43 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Mar 34.5 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
11 Mar 35.0 °C 37 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Mar 35.5 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Mar 35.2 °C 43 % 21 km/h 2.3 mm Low 10
14 Mar 35.6 °C 42 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
15 Mar 35.8 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
16 Mar 35.2 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Mar 34.4 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
18 Mar 34.1 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
19 Mar 35.0 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Mar after 35.3 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Mar after 33.5 °C 39 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Mar after 27.1 °C 69 % 18 km/h 4.3 mm Very low 2

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 24.2, a minimum humidity of 31% and 25 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 20.

FWI at the start 24.2
Minimum humidity 31 %
Days without rain 25
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Lawksawk fire, February 2024
36,790 ha 35 days FWI 24.0 Min. humidity 32 % 15 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

17 days
median duration
3,124 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 10 of 20 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,153 ha against a median of 3,124 ha) and lasted 17 days, against 17 days.

In 10 of 20, 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 2.3 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

4.3 mmfirst rain
22 Mar3 days after it ended
32km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 19 Mar, and on 22 Mar 4.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 20, with a median of 2.3 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.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Feb 2022
After · 26 Mar 2022

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 · 109Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Hopong fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 March 2022 to 19 March 2022 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 March 2022 to 19 March 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,153 hectares (21.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Hopong (2,169 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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: 20. Their median duration was 17 days and their median area 3,124 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 10 of 20, 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 2.3 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 10 March 2022 → 3 March 2022.

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 March 2022 to 19 March 2022. 109 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.