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Kawkareik fire, 17 March 2020 Kawkareik, Kyainseikgyi

Out · last detection 19 Mar 2020, 18:23 UTC

The fire started on 17 March 2020 in Kawkareik, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,148 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Kayin since 2016 (of 53 with a page). Number 80 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2020, of 166.

Burnt area
3,148ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
17 Mar 2020 – 19 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
17 Mar
2020
Heat detections
79
in a single hotspot: 182 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Mar 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Mar19 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1819

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
37km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,386 ha in 2016, 592 ha in 2018, 950 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,976 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Kawkareik where it started
    3,160 ha reached on 18 Mar
    1.3 %
  2. Kyainseikgyi
    3 ha
    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)
17 Mar 38.3 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Mar 37.7 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Mar 37.7 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
20 Mar after 36.1 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Mar after 37.0 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
22 Mar after 36.1 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
23 Mar after 38.8 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Mar after 37.9 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
25 Mar after 38.1 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Mar after 37.9 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Mar after 37.7 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Mar after 37.7 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Mar after 37.9 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Mar 2020
After · 26 Mar 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 · 79Every 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 Kawkareik fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 March 2020 and 19 March 2020: 3 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 3,148 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kawkareik (3,160 ha, 1.3 %); Kyainseikgyi (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.