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MM · Myanmar (Burma) · →

Kale fire, November 2025 Kale, Falam

Out · last detection 30 Dec 2025, 07:40 UTC

The fire started on 28 November 2025 in Kale, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,998 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 25th largest in Saigang since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 40 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2025, of 123.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.6 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
3,998ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
28 Nov 2025 – 30 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
28 Nov
2025
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
5
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
492MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Dec 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Nov30 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

282930135678910111213141516171819212223252830

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
22km/h · peak gust
55%lowest humidity

It had gone 21 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. Kale where it started
    4,003 ha reached on 26 Nov
    1.7 %
  2. Falam
    15 ha reached on 25 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
28 Nov 27.5 °C 57 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
29 Nov 27.8 °C 59 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
30 Nov 27.7 °C 61 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
1 Dec 27.9 °C 66 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
2 Dec 27.3 °C 70 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
3 Dec 27.3 °C 71 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
4 Dec 28.0 °C 73 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
5 Dec 28.3 °C 68 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
6 Dec 28.0 °C 65 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
7 Dec 27.5 °C 66 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
8 Dec 26.8 °C 66 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
9 Dec 26.5 °C 66 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
10 Dec 27.2 °C 64 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
11 Dec 26.5 °C 63 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
12 Dec 26.5 °C 59 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
13 Dec 26.3 °C 61 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
14 Dec 27.2 °C 55 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
15 Dec 28.5 °C 58 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
16 Dec 27.3 °C 60 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
17 Dec 25.4 °C 68 % 22 km/h 0.3 mm Low 7
18 Dec 27.3 °C 57 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
19 Dec 27.6 °C 63 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
20 Dec 27.0 °C 65 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
21 Dec 26.8 °C 60 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
22 Dec 27.6 °C 60 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
23 Dec 26.7 °C 63 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
24 Dec 26.7 °C 71 % 18 km/h 0.3 mm Low 7
25 Dec 24.8 °C 76 % 19 km/h 0.5 mm Low 6
26 Dec 25.2 °C 74 % 18 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 2
27 Dec 26.3 °C 66 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
28 Dec 27.0 °C 63 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
29 Dec 26.0 °C 69 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
30 Dec 26.6 °C 61 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
31 Dec after 25.9 °C 64 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
1 Jan after 26.0 °C 64 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
2 Jan after 25.4 °C 68 % 19 km/h 0.5 mm Low 7
3 Jan after 25.3 °C 67 % 18 km/h 0.6 mm Low 6
4 Jan after 24.7 °C 68 % 22 km/h 0.4 mm Low 7
5 Jan after 23.5 °C 72 % 20 km/h 0.1 mm Low 7
6 Jan after 24.6 °C 64 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm Low 7
7 Jan after 24.5 °C 64 % 22 km/h 0.3 mm Low 8
8 Jan after 24.7 °C 58 % 20 km/h 0.3 mm Low 8
9 Jan after 27.2 °C 51 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Nov 2025
After · 6 Jan 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 22 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak22 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1022 µg/m³
Optical depth0.37
26272829301234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 105Every 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 Kale fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 November 2025 and 30 December 2025: 33 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 3,998 hectares (40.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kale (4,003 ha, 1.7 %); Falam (15 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 55 % and gusts hit 22 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 8, class Low.
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.