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Hsihseng fire, March 2018 Hsihseng

Out · last detection 23 Mar 2018, 06:24 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2018 in Hsihseng, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,831 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 367th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 19 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2018, of 42.

Burnt area
2,831ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
18 Mar 2018 – 22 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
18 Mar
2018
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
850MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar22 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
35km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 1 Apr.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4 ha in 2016, 2,020 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Hsihseng where it started
    2,842 ha reached on 18 Mar
    1.4 %

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)
18 Mar 31.0 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.7 mm High 24
19 Mar 33.6 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Mar 33.9 °C 19 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Mar 33.1 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Mar 33.3 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Mar after 34.0 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Mar after 35.3 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Mar after 35.1 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Mar after 35.8 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Mar after 34.2 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Mar after 32.5 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Mar after 34.7 °C 25 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Mar after 33.7 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Mar after 32.4 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.5 mm High 33
1 Apr after 32.1 °C 32 % 34 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2018
After · 29 Mar 2018

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 · 102Every 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 Hsihseng fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2018 and 22 March 2018: 5 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 2,831 hectares (28.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Hsihseng (2,842 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.