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MM · Myanmar · –

Hpa-An fire, 19 March 2020 Hpa-An, Hpapun

Out · last detection 8 Apr 2020, 06:17 UTC

The fire started on 19 March 2020 in Hpa-An, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,092 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 53th largest in Kayin since 2016 (of 131 with a page). Number 113 in Myanmar in 2020, of 232.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Mae Ramat · 2019Tha Song Yang · 2016Hpapun · 2016Hpa-An · 2026

Burnt area
3,092ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
19 Mar 2020 – 8 Apr 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
19 Mar
2020
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 139 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
165MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Mar8 Apr
8 Apr 2020

How it evolved, day by day

19 Mar 2020 · 42 MW · 4 20 Mar 2020 · 17 MW · 2 23 Mar 2020 · 68 MW · 2 24 Mar 2020 · 191 MW · 8 25 Mar 2020 · 563 MW · 18 26 Mar 2020 · 324 MW · 10 27 Mar 2020 · 18 MW · 2 28 Mar 2020 · 49 MW · 2 29 Mar 2020 · 239 MW · 4 30 Mar 2020 · 461 MW · 18 31 Mar 2020 · 130 MW · 8 1 Apr 2020 · 692 MW · 11 2 Apr 2020 · 12 MW · 1 3 Apr 2020 · 46 MW · 3 4 Apr 2020 · 85 MW · 4 5 Apr 2020 · 6 MW · 1 6 Apr 2020 · 2 MW · 1 8 Apr 2020 · 24 MW · 2
19 Mar 25 Mar 29 Mar 1 Apr 6 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
34km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,230 ha in 2016, 975 ha in 2017, 1,215 ha in 2018, 1,816 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,472 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2% of the area of London (31 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. Hpa-An where it started
    1,789 ha reached on 19 Mar
    0.6 %
  2. Hpapun
    1,319 ha reached on 24 Mar
    0.2 %

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 24 % of the area in Myanmar

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
19 Mar 37.4 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Mar 35.4 °C 46 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Mar 35.4 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
22 Mar 35.7 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Mar 37.5 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Mar 37.0 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Mar 37.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Mar 36.8 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Mar 37.0 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Mar 36.6 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Mar 36.6 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Mar 37.2 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Mar 37.7 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Apr 37.8 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Apr 38.3 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Apr 38.7 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Apr 39.2 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Apr 39.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Apr 38.0 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm High 36
7 Apr 38.0 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.7 mm High 25
8 Apr 37.8 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Apr after 38.2 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Apr after 37.9 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Apr after 38.9 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Apr after 39.1 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Apr after 39.5 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Apr after 38.5 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Apr after 38.7 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Apr after 38.9 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Apr after 38.2 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Apr after 38.3 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 30.6, a minimum humidity of 40% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 20.

FWI at the start 30.6
Minimum humidity 40 %
Days without rain 60+
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Mae Ramat fire, March 2019
1,025 ha 4 days FWI 30.3 Min. humidity 39 % 107 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.1 mm on 19 Mar.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
1,462 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 20 had it)

It was 2.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 21 days, against 10 days.

Only 4 of its 20 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 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 4.6 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
34km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 8 Apr, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 20, with a median of 4.6 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 · 12 Mar 2020
After · 15 Apr 2020

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 · 101Every 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 Hpa-An fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 March 2020 to 8 April 2020 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 March 2020 to 1 April 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,092 hectares (30.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hpa-An (1,789 ha, 0.6 %); Hpapun (1,319 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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 10 days and their median area 1,462 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 4 of its 20 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 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 4.6 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 1 April 2020 → 8 April 2020.
  2. Start date: 20 March 2020 → 19 March 2020.

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.

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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 20 March 2020 to 1 April 2020. 101 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.