Hpruso fire, 19 March 2020 Hpruso
The fire started on 19 March 2020 in Hpruso, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,126 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 42th largest in Kayah since 2016 (of 159 with a page). Number 30 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2020, of 166.
- Burnt area
- 5,126ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 19 Mar 2020 – 25 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 195
- in a single hotspot: 161 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.1GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 31 Mar.
This area had burned before
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,839 ha in 2016, 2,328 ha in 2017, 3,244 ha in 2018, 2,455 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,411 ha that had burned before.
- 2,455 ha Hpruso fire, March 2019 2,588 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,212 ha Hpruso fire, March 2018 3,291 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,981 ha Hpruso fire, March 2017 3,638 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,839 ha Hpruso fire, March 2016 2,652 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hpruso where it started5,151 ha reached on 16 Mar3.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Mar | 37.6 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Mar | 36.1 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Mar | 35.0 °C | 29 % | 51 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Mar | 34.6 °C | 26 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Mar | 35.2 °C | 30 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 24 Mar | 35.8 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Mar | 36.6 °C | 22 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 26 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Mar after | 37.3 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Mar after | 38.2 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Mar after | 37.9 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Mar after | 38.3 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Mar after | 38.4 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 1.3 mm | High 27 |
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.
Detections table · 195Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Hpruso fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 March 2020 and 25 March 2020: 7 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 5,126 hectares (51.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Hpruso (5,151 ha, 3.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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.