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Hsipaw fire, January 2020 Hsipaw, Mongkaing

Out · last detection 4 Feb 2020, 06:18 UTC

The fire started on 19 January 2020 in Hsipaw, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,132 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 125th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 29 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2020, of 166.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.6 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
5,132ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
19 Jan 2020 – 3 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
19 Jan
2020
Heat detections
261
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jan3 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252627282930311234

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
46km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Hsipaw where it started
    4,829 ha reached on 17 Jan
    0.9 %
  2. Mongkaing
    318 ha reached on 24 Jan
    0.1 %

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 Jan 29.0 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
20 Jan 28.4 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Jan 29.0 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Jan 28.7 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
23 Jan 28.6 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
24 Jan 26.5 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
25 Jan 24.1 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
26 Jan 25.7 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
27 Jan 24.8 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
28 Jan 25.4 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Jan 25.3 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
30 Jan 26.9 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
31 Jan 27.4 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
1 Feb 29.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Feb 28.6 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Feb 28.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Feb after 28.0 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Feb after 28.2 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Feb after 28.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Feb after 28.9 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Feb after 29.8 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Feb after 30.3 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Feb after 29.2 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Feb after 29.1 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Feb after 28.5 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Feb after 28.8 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jan 2020
After · 10 Feb 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 · 261Every 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 Hsipaw fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2020 and 3 February 2020: 16 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 5,132 hectares (51.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hsipaw (4,829 ha, 0.9 %); Mongkaing (318 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.