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Kani fire, March 2019 Mingin, Kani

Out · last detection 25 Mar 2019, 19:12 UTC

The fire started on 18 March 2019 in Kani, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,674 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 55th largest in Saigang since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 75 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.9 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
2,674ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
18 Mar 2019 – 25 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
18 Mar
2019
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
219MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Mar25 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
30km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 2 Apr.

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 20 ha in 2016, 1,034 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Mingin
    1,363 ha reached on 18 Mar
    0.3 %
  2. Kani where it started
    1,319 ha reached on 18 Mar
    0.4 %

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 33.5 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Mar 34.6 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Mar 32.7 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Mar 33.9 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Mar 34.6 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Mar 36.0 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Mar 35.6 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Mar 35.4 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Mar after 36.3 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Mar after 35.5 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
28 Mar after 33.2 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Mar after 35.0 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Mar after 36.3 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Mar after 35.8 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
1 Apr after 33.3 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
2 Apr after 33.3 °C 32 % 30 km/h 1.1 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Mar 2019
After · 1 Apr 2019

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 · 96Every 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 Kani fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 March 2019 and 25 March 2019: 8 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 2,674 hectares (26.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mingin (1,363 ha, 0.3 %); Kani (1,319 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.